Posted on 03/07/2006 10:12:59 AM PST by RBroadfoot
None, according to Richard Cohen of the Washington Post.
EXCERPT: I am haunted by Gabriela Ocampo. ... failing algebra six times in six semesters, trying it a seventh time and finally just despairing over ever getting it.
The L.A. school district now requires all students to pass a year of algebra ...
Here's the thing, Gabriela: You will never need to know algebra. I have never once used it and never once even rued that I could not use it. ...
Gabriela, sooner or later someone's going to tell you that algebra teaches reasoning. This is a lie propagated by, among others, algebra teachers. Writing is the highest form of reasoning. This is a fact. Algebra is not. The proof of this, Gabriela, is all the people in my high school who were whizzes at math but did not know a thing about history and could not write a readable English sentence. ...
Algebra ruined many a day for me. Now it could ruin your life.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I sure it has been said in the past 300 Posts, but this guy is an incredible fool.
Off topic. Do you think they will prosecute Cindy Sheehan for not filing?
Me too! Course I was on the Algebra team both years I took Algebra... I also hated Geometry. Not because I didn't get it, but because I was lazy and hated having to "prove" something that I felt should be obvious to any idiot out there.
Many people that "don't get" Algebra actually use it every day. They just don't know it's Algebra, so it doesn't scare them. Maybe we should just call Algebra "cookies" and more people would pass.
I suppose so. Prefab trusses are sure a lot faster, and speed seems to be the main thing these days in construction. On the other hand, my old house, built in 1954 was done the old-fashioned way, and it's still square. My in-laws house was built in the 90s and isn't.
My projects are always small scale. The largest thing I've ever done was a 2-car garage. But I did the whole thing myself, from pouring the slab to roofing it. I learned a lot on that project. One of the principal things I learned was that raising a 24-foot long stud wall by yourself is not all that easy. Darned things wiggle. [grin]
"Most calculus teachers will not waste their time going over algebra."
Algebra teachers shouldn't have to explain arithmetic either, but today's government high school students don't yet comprehend the basic arithmetic.
I think you'll find that people do not need to learn Algebra to achieve this. Algebra is for more complex problems that don't arise in day-to-day life for people not in certain fields. The truth is that most people do not remember anything about Algebra twenty years after their last class, but those same people can read twenty years later. Why? Because they didn't use Algebra, but they read often enough.
Exactly. I could always get an answer but I never could understand the way the teacher told us that we had to get the answer. As long as the answer was all that mattered I did fine.
Off topic? Thats next universe topic. LOL... I didnt know she didnt file.
Bah... you do calculus every day, whether you realize it or not. Ever catch something thrown at you? Your brain had to do differential calculus to predict the path of the thrown object. Whenever I tutored someone who would claim that they "can't" do calculus, the first thing I would do is toss something like a tennis ball at them -- whether they caught it or not, at least getting in the ballpark shows that their brain is capable of doing it, at which point it was just a matter of turning it into a conscious act instead of an unconscious one.
You didn't know she said she wouldn't be paying anymore taxes? One of her early quotes.
ROTLFLMAO
Then calculus must be the hydraulics.
You forgot to include let's make attendance at school optional and everyone gets a degree for simply breathing and taking up space somewhere. Sheesh!
First year algebra is just day to day math presented in a new format. You would never see people say they not only don't understand but DON'T WANT TO UNDERSTAND the gas costs for their commute, or price comparisons when shopping for unlike quantities, or how much paint to buy.
But when you call it algebra and present it in abstract equations instead of english (or in California, spanish), many people are not only baffled but pick up a life long hatred for the concept.
It would seem the me that the problem is in the teaching.
It's th ekind of Algebra my 12 year olds mastered two years ago. Certainly a HS Grad should be able to do simple Algebra.
No... I look at her ugly mug and I go the other direction.
Here are the universal numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42.
My 7 year old is learning algebra. Pie of pie as some Russian dude once said.
That explains why they outsource to India......just kidding .....
It's not only an arabic word - it's an arabic invention. Until the arabs invented the concept of "zero" (another arabic word) - higher mathematics were nearly impossible. Add up these numbers: XXVII + CXV + MDCII + DXV. I have no idea how the Greeks and Romans kept track of anything without using a zero.
The Arab civilization brought European civilization many mathematic, scientific and medical advances. The problem is that all their advances stopped 500 years ago. Since then they have come up with almost nothing new - except suicide bombers.
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