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 ...
Algebra forms the indispensable foundation for all of the sciences: physics, chemistry, biosciences, all types of mechanics and engineering ... all of which are capable of interpreting and/or predicting every natural event ... the minute and the majestic ... from subatomic motion to supernovas ... or creating man-made ones. And it plays an indispensable role beyond science -- in music, art, and other more 'aesthetic' disciplines.
I believe those who claim that algebra is 'useless' fall into two categories:
(1) those who use it everyday (even without formal instruction, because much of algebra is simply real world analytical common sense), without being aware that they do, and
(2) those who benefit from its use, without even being aware that they do.
Every one of the hundreds of effects of modern conveniences with which we come into contact each day (from formulae used in growing/transporting/preparing the food that we eat, to the research and design that resulted in the effective functioning of the car that we drive) finds its roots in a knowledge of algebra.
Each of us does not have to have a formal algebra education. But every hour of every day of our lives is influenced by its use. We need not know how a television works in order to push the 'on' button and enjoy what it has to offer. But we need to acknowledge that the knowledge possessed by those who designed and built that television has had a major influence on our lives.
Anyone who questions the value of algebra sees the world through superficial glasses (yet another item whose design and creation would have been all but impossible without that branch of mathematics for which he has no use. :)
I have tutored math (from basic math through advanced Calculus) on and off for more than twenty years. In the process I have come to the very sad conclusion that most people (especially children) are not 'math challenged'. Most of their math teachers are incapable of getting mathematical concepts across. And the reason that most people do not like, or feel comfortable working with, math is that their foundations in the study ... from basic math on ... are shaky. And if one does not comprehend simple fractions/percentages/positive and negative numbers, etc. then his comprehension of any 'higher math' that follows is in jeopardy, if not an exercise in futility. More than any other subject, math builds upon itself. If one block of the foundation is missing, anything built upon it will fall.
So many American children (not just the current generation, but the three or four generations that preceded them as well) never received a good foundation in the basics. And attempting to build on that fragile knowledge of the basics with algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and more advanced math disciplines, only results in frustration ... the frustration that is evidenced in this article (I have never once used it and never once even rued that I could not use it), and in some posts on this thread.
Mr. Cohen, you use algebra hundreds of times every day … indirectly. There isn't anything you put into your body, or anything you see, taste, smell, touch, or hear (music included), whose designer (the Lord highest among them) did not make use of logic, shape, arrangement, lines, vectors, matrices, relationships, sets, operations, etc. – all of which are born in the study of (or the creation of, where the Lord is concerned) algebra.
The fact that so many people do not recognize just how much the use of algebra permeates every day of our lives is evidence of the fact that they simply have not been taught its importance or relevance – let alone how to use it to their advantage.
The author is living with blinders on, offering a myopic, one-dimensional argument in order to denigrate a multi-dimensional discipline.
~ joanie
Do you have a link to this? Sounds interesting.
Strongly agree!
You prove the rule. If one can't learn mathematics one can't be intellectually disciplined, and you are not.
And?
I do know that if you miss even one day of Algebra class, you are pretty much lost after that!
I barely passed it in HS.
When I took it in college, I sat on the front row, never missed a class, paid attention, worked LOTS of problems daily, and got an A.
Never use the stuff now.
I am a bricklayer and use algebra all the time. I believe it does help with reasoning.
I love math and everything about it. I don't think every student should have to take algebra. That said, it is more about the thinking process, and the reasoning required in 'doing' math than the actual problem of finding X.
try www.academicgames.org
i can't view that page from where i'm at right now, but i think its the right one.
I don't think the guy was saying that algebra should be omitted from the ciricullum. He was saying that she should not jump off a bridge because she flunked algebra 6 times. Of course, it would be nice if she could pass, and get her diploma, but having tutored some kids with learning disabilities, I can tell you that there are some who just can't learn, and there is no point in beating a dead horse.
At least you can copy and paste. I suppose that way you can't be accused of doing anything original.
If schools taught only one math concept, percentages should be the one. Think of the math phobics and ignoramouses in the House and Senate who decide what to do with ...only 1%....of maybe 5 trillion dollars!
Sure. I didn't think of that. But I think the original poster probably could do with the re-enforcement of the idea of multiplying/dividing both sides by the same value. That's big in dealing with fractions, LCD, GCF, etc.
SD
That's Algebra:
velocity(v)=distance(d) divided by time(t)
or
v=d/t or miles per hour = miles/hours
d=vt or miles or miles per hour X hours
t=d/v or hours or miles / miles per hour
Multiplication is a tool for Algebra. No matter how you arrived at your answer you still started with an unknown variable and you used Algebra to arrive at that answer. It's simple Algabra, but it's still Algebra.
Look, friend, I didn't start calling names. Now, what is your malfunction?
And apparently nobody evrer taught you any manners jerk off.
Certainly I understand what dyslexia is, and I feel for those who suffer from it. I find myself transposing letters and even words when I write longhand.
I see people on TV a lot of whom I have my doubts as to whether they really suffer from dyslexia, or if they simply can't read.
I mean no offense to people who struggle with this -- the lazy nogoodniks that piggyback on your challenge are the ones who disrespect people who really suffer from lysdexia.
However, I won't end my reply to you with some snarky comment. We just see this topic differently.
Magnificent Joanie!
You have Email.
Bingo
As if I needed further proof to know that Richard Cohen is a moron.
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