Posted on 08/19/2013 2:32:53 PM PDT by Borges
Nicholson Baker hates math. The novelist and nonfiction writer spends almost eight pages of this month's Harper's Magazine making the case that compulsory algebra courses in American education are at best, wrongheaded, and at worst, downright cruel. Baker isn't the first to suggest we turn the much-maligned subject into an academic elective, in order to put those who struggle endlessly with math out of unnecessary misery. Last summer, a New York Times op-ed by Andrew Hacker made much the same point: The myriad road blocks in our educational system that can only be surpassed by proving competent in algebra and upper level math--like high school exit exams and college applications, even for future arts majors--set up the non math-minded to fail, and often, to drop out of school altogether, he posits.
If we would just do away with upper-level math requirements in high school, the high school dropout rate would decline, both writers argue, as many educators say algebra is the major academic reason for dropping out. As Baker puts it: "Show your work, or you fail. FML!" So why are we so into algebra? Baker points out that many of today's math requirements are relics of the Cold War. In 1950, only 25 percent of students in the U.S. were taking algebra. The Soviet Union, by contrast, was churning out mathematicians, partially because compared to lab sciences, teaching math is cheap--pen and paper are the only required materials. And so, seeing the influx of young mathematicians in Russia, Congress passed 1958's National Defense Education Act, re-upping the American math curriculum requirements, and, in turn, creating a lot of unhappy students who, as they struggle through required math course after required math course, become discouraged and learn to hate school. As someone who, despite being kind of generally pretty good at math, loathed Algebra II, I'm a bit inclined to agree with Hacker's and Baker's views. Algebra II was a disorienting, stressful experience. As only a fair-weather appreciator of the mathematical arts, I remember that year as one of the darkest periods of my high school career. And man, does Baker get to the heart of that feeling: Algebra 2 Common Core is, in other words, a typical, old-fashioned algebra textbooks. It's a highly efficient engineer for the creation of math rage: a dead scrap of repellant terminology, a collection of spiky, decontextualized, multistep mathematical black-box techniques that you must practice over and over and get by heart in order to be ready to do something interesting later on, when the time comes. Right now, Baker and Hacker are on the losing side of federal education requirements, though. "Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education, wants everyone working their asymptotes off," as Baker writes. "Algebra II, he believes, is the mystic portal to prosperity." As Duncan pointed out in a speech in 2011, high school students who finish Algebra II are twice as likely to earn a college degree. Of course, colleges require applicants to have passed Algebra II for admission, so Duncan may need a lesson in causation vs. correlation.
Some math teachers are even against higher math for the masses. "The vast majority of the human race, and the vast majority of the college-educated human race never need any mathematics beyond arithmetic to survive successfully," Baker quotes number theorist Underwood Dudley as writing in a 1987 issue of The American Mathematical Monthly. Cornell University mathematician Steven Strogatz told Baker it alarmed him to see a large portion of students not just not learning in math classes, but actively suffering. We need less math for the average kid, Strogatz said, but more meaningful math. 'We spend a lot of time avalanching students with the answers to things that they wouldn't think of asking.' Baker's solution to the problem is this: We should, I think, create a new, one-year teaser course for ninth graders, which would briefly cover a few techniques of algebraic manipulation, some mind stretching geometric proofs, some nifty things about parabolas and conic sections, and even perhaps a soft-core hint of the infinitesimal, change-explaining powers of calculus...Take students to see the mathematical sequoia, tell them how great it is, but don't force them to climb it until their arms go numb and they fall. If math were an elective, "American science and technology would be unharmed, and a lot of poisonous math hatred would go away instantly. Kids don't hate smelting, or farming, or knitting, or highway design, or portrait painting, or neurology, or juggling rubber balls, or sonnet-writing, because they don't have to take three years of instruction in any of these arts," he writes. So, math is like juggling, and should be reserved for that one weird enthusiastic kid in the class. And the rest of us could be spared the effort of trying to find an equation for tears shed per problem.
Why even bother with school then?
Algebra should be mastered in middle-school, Calculus should be learned at age 12.
So what if they drop out? Not everyone is meant to work in an office.
Bring back manufacturing, the tool-and-die-shops, the mines, etc. And kick out the illegals who are "doing the jobs our kids are too lazy and spoiled to do. And cut out welfare, food stamps, etc. for the able-bodied.
for the hookups and free condoms and hot teachers who like’em really young apparently
Not like they actually learn anything useful these days
Sure get rid of it, along with reading, spelling and English, most of the students today don’t come away from school with any appreciable level of competency in these subjects any way. All they need to teach in school is sex education with an emphasis on perversion and socialist dependence on government then they will all be perfect little demoncrats.
Should Math Really Be A Required Subject?
Only if you want to make a living and not be a loser EBT sucking parasite Obama voter..............
Well, pretty soon English would also be a non-required subject.
Scoff...
So, now I'm confused. Is the purpose of school to impart knowledge to those who can/will receive it, or is it to have the lowest possible dropout rate?
Those two missions require VASTLY different sets of solutions.
Much more important that they be required to perform “community service” for their diploma than to acquire any actual knowledge.
We no longer teach meaningful civics, so why keep algebra? The fast food registers do all the calculations anyway.
Algebra? I think algebra is pretty basic stuff actually. If a student is having trouble with algebra, it is probably a sign that they don’t have a grasp on something more fundamental, like abstract thinking or problem solving skills.
Increasingly, we aren't. We are providing lots of opportunities for Democrat union members and lots of expenditures for the purpose of imposing a social agenda and propagandizing generations of young minds so they will be ready for leftists causes and a life of working in and being supported by the State.
If a student graduates from a community college and then transfers to 4 year school, prerequisite high school requirements are waived.
The problem is that high schools no longer track students, into college prep, business or industrial arts curriculums. I suggest that we return to this system with the addition of a tech course of study, that could be adapted for college prep. It serves no purpose to try to teach kids to master a subject that is beyond their capabilities.
My local county tech school requires algebra for entrance to a course that teaches short order cooking. Instead of trying teach a skill to students who can’t hope to master more difficult trades, the school tries to make the course suitable for students who would otherwise be in the community college.
Ah, all of those depend on math. Heavily.
I surmise that Mr. Baker probably doesn't hate math per se. What he probably hates is the way that math is taught. And this is not a condemnation of math teachers but the reality, imo, that the primary informal purpose of public schools is to "babysit" kids and teenagers while parents are at work. And it must be a real challenge for many math teachers to actually teach math on top of their babysitting duties.
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