Is Algebra Necessary?

New York Times ^ | July 28, 2012 | ANDREW HACKER

[reaganaut1]

A TYPICAL American school day finds some six million high school students and two million college freshmen struggling with algebra. In both high school and college, all too many students are expected to fail. Why do we subject American students to this ordeal? I’ve found myself moving toward the strong view that we shouldn’t.

My question extends beyond algebra and applies more broadly to the usual mathematics sequence, from geometry through calculus. State regents and legislators — and much of the public — take it as self-evident that every young person should be made to master polynomial functions and parametric equations.

There are many defenses of algebra and the virtue of learning it. Most of them sound reasonable on first hearing; many of them I once accepted. But the more I examine them, the clearer it seems that they are largely or wholly wrong — unsupported by research or evidence, or based on wishful logic. (I’m not talking about quantitative skills, critical for informed citizenship and personal finance, but a very different ballgame.)

This debate matters. Making mathematics mandatory prevents us from discovering and developing young talent. In the interest of maintaining rigor, we’re actually depleting our pool of brainpower. I say this as a writer and social scientist whose work relies heavily on the use of numbers. My aim is not to spare students from a difficult subject, but to call attention to the real problems we are causing by misdirecting precious resources.

The toll mathematics takes begins early. To our nation’s shame, one in four ninth graders fail to finish high school. In South Carolina, 34 percent fell away in 2008-9, according to national data released last year; for Nevada, it was 45 percent. Most of the educators I’ve talked with cite algebra as the major academic reason.

[Vide]

Thank you for the article. I can't say I agree with him.

In Confucian thought, children are "jugs to be filled"; in Lockhart's view, they are "candles to be lit".

I think the truth is that they are "lanterns, which must be filled before they can be lit".

Let's just try applying Lockhart's prescription to a real-world problem: the failure of Senate Democrats to propose a budget in 3+ years. Should be just "wait until their own natural curiosity about [budget] numbers kicks in"?

I'm not just taking a cheap, partisan shot with that last example: I think that politicians - of both sides - have only been able to get away with the destruction they've wrought because of the numerical illiteracy of a majority of the population and of the attorney/bureaucrat beltway ruling class.

Feel-good, finger-painting, "kumbaya" Math education is unlikely to improve the situation.

[Cvengr]

I’ve always been amazed at the numbers of people who are unable to perform Algebra by the end of high school, when my class was able to complete it prior to high school.

Of course, today, most kids have difficulty writing or even reading cursive handwriting.

[Tammy8]

Algebra is impossible without a decent teacher, nothing makes sense, confusing, maddening. With the right teacher Algebra is not hard to learn, the better the teacher the easier it is.

[Chode]

i've been a programmer since 1981, but like i said, i guess i just don't know when i'm using algebra like i know when i'm using trig etc cause like you said, most of it's done in my head

[Dr. Sivana]

The problem with that is the fact that almost every apprenticeship requires algebra, geometry, and trigonometry.

Yup, so the learning of mathematics becomes integrated into the apprenticeship program.

[Chode]

see post #208... like i said, i guess i just don't know when i'm using it like i know when i'm using trig etc cause i do it in my head

[tumblindice]

My problem with Algebra in college was that it was taught by a grad student from (I believe) somewhere in the middle east with English as a second language, and no one could understand him.

But then I read the book, “Flowers For Algebra” and it all made sense.
Cliff Robertson started out as a liberal, gradually became a staunch/ultra/die-hard/far-right conservative, then slowly turned back into a Democrat. It made me cry.

[arderkrag]

She looked down at the book, then looked up at me, and said...”What? Is that it? Is it really that easy?”. With that one question, the years of mental blocks came tumbling down, and from then on all new material was easy for her (with just a little explanation)..she ended up with a B as her final grade.

I had the same thing happen, with me passing my mental block in 10th grade. I ended up cracking through it so well I made straight A's in math from that point on and tutored it all my senior year. All it took was a very patient teacher who taught with an old slide rule he'd had since his own similar experience in high school back in the 60's.

[El Laton Caliente]

Carpenters, Ironworkers, Pipe fitters, and especially machinists/millwrights at minimum require trig. Unless trade school is training buger flippers your plan will not work.

[ContraryMary]

In other words...graduation rates are pitiful, so let's boost them by making it easier for kids to graduate.

I didn't vote for Jon Corzine, but he had some laudable standards for education. Under him, new standards were phased in, here in NJ, for high school graduation. I believe that now incoming high school students are required to take math through algebra II -- three years of mathematics. There are similar standards for the sciences as well.

[Lurker]

The last time I had to find x was junior year at college. The real world doesn’t care where x is.

As another poster pointed out, try building a patio deck without being able to find x.

[BobL]

“gotta tell ya, in all my years at work i have needed and used extensively, geometry, trig, statistics and physics, but i have never needed algebra to do any job... lucky me “

It looks like your sarcasm tripped up a couple of people...

[Reily]

All go read

Unknown Quantity
The Real and Imaginary History of Algebra
By John Derbyshire (He was a National Review contributor!)

If you are an Algebraphobe as my wife was it will change your perspective on the subject. It changed my wife's view, her comment was “That's what algebra is...its English grammar”. My reaction was a mental “Well Duh!”!

[dsrtsage]

“The last time I had to find x was junior year at college. The real world doesn’t care where x is.”

You want to take the family to grandmas house.
Grandma lives 250 miles away.
Your car gets 23mpg
Gas costs 3.83 per gallon
You have $75 spare cash in the bank

Do you have enough money to buy gas to get to grandmas and back?

[BobL]

“Why did you need a summer at Sylvan to know what your daughter hadn’t been taught in math? Are you that hands off a parent that you’re unaware of what she’d been taught six or eight hours a day for months or years? It’s your job to know and your failure that you didn’t. That blame doesn’t lie with the school, it’s in the mirror.”

I don’t know where you live, but I’ve read everything from my local schools (not that I ever used them, but it is on line). I couldn’t find ANYTHING saying, to the effect of:

“We might do a crappy job here in the Lincoln (or whatever) School District, it is YOUR JOB, as a parent, to figure that out and get your kids educated elsewhere if we screw up. We take no responsibility for that.”

I tend to think that most schools instead tell parents that they will properly educate their kids. A few of us parents got VERY LUCKY and figured this out before subjecting our kids to this nightmare. Others, like yldstrk figured it out in time to save their kids and give them good futures. But most do not - for they really don’t know whether fractions should be learned in 3rd grade or 5th grade - but the year those fractions are learned (and stuff like that) will set their path for life.

[dr_lew]

When I learned Algebra, it was 90% regurgitation of formulas and proofs you were expected to memorize.

By my recollection, it was 90% factoring.

[Vigilantcitizen]

I got a 20 amp recept circuit to trouble shoot...should I use a voltmeter or ohms law?

Figuring square feet is not algebra...it’s simple math.
L X W X H

Configuring the formula used to find the answer on the opposite of the equals symbol is algebra.

L X x X H = sq ft.

[AmericanSamurai]

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”. Proverbs 1:7.

---

Went back to school in my 30’s and once I learned the above, everything became clear to me, including learning Algebra. I made A’s. As a kid, I struggled with Math.

[marron]

But then I read the book, “Flowers For Algebra” and it all made sense. Cliff Robertson started out as a liberal, gradually became a staunch/ultra/die-hard/far-right conservative, then slowly turned back into a Democrat. It made me cry.

Now, thats funny.

[BlatherNaut]

“That's what algebra is...its English grammar”.

Not much of a selling point for the grammar-phobes among us. :o>

From what I've observed, many people (myself included) have far more difficulty with the "verbal thinking" side of the educational equation than with the mathematical side. It's the rare person who excels equally at both. It may have something to do with being wired to think more in pictures and symbols than in language. The ability to become a skillful verbal communicator requires a particular type of mental wiring that not everyone is born with.