In the article, Cohen admits that he doesn't understand algebra, can't even do percentages, and just doesn't get it. Though he admits his own stupidity in elementary mathematics, this liberal thinks himself qualified to opine on tax rates, budgets, economic development, inflation, monetary policy, military issues, etc.
BTW, Gabriela skipped 62 of the 93 days during her final semester. Maybe that would explain a large part of her failure.
http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-dropout30jan30,0,3211437.story?page=3
ALGEBRA ????
I am still perplexed by the metric system
Every Friday night, ABC mocks and abuses this poor girl by playing the show "Numb3rs." I think she's got grounds for a lawsuit.
I've used arithmetic and algebra nearly every day of my professional life; trig on occasion, and calculus never.
If Kenyetta gets drunk at a party and has sex with 10 different men, what percent certain is she that Vishawn is little Mustafa's father when she appears on the Maury show for a paternity test?
a) 10%
b) 100%
c) 200%
d) 1,000%
And the correct answer is d) 1,000%
(Sorry, day off, watching Maury)
Ever try to ballpark how much cash you'd have left from your paycheck, after you got finished paying taxes and bills?
You just did algebra....
Genius opinion journalists at the Washington Post ping.
Writing the highest form of reasoning? I don't think so. Just look at the writings in, for example, DemocraticUnderground.com.
I was a math whiz and used it in my work. Algebra is the foundation of college mathematics, so it should be required of all college prep students. Even in the social sciences you need it for the statistics course. But there is little use for algebra in everyday life. You can just keep guessing at the answer until you get something that works. Of course, if you don't have any experience with algebra, you may not know for sure if it's the right answer, but you don't have to PASS algebra just to guess. Besides, you are supposed to "estimate" the answer before you solve an equation, as a check on your work. I suppose that the rationale for requiring it is that some students may not know they have college potential until their senior year, when it's too late. But they can take remedial classes as a freshman. My college roommate took remedial algebra and still became an engineer because he understood cars.
I have found it very useful in the safety field. It would take more than my fingers and toes to count how many times men lives have literally been saved by persistent computation. Sure a few here or there might have other names for me, but this I know in my lifetime, nobody died. And the likelihood that their kids will be genetically inferior is low.
Algebra, my dear, algebra can save lives. Especially of those poor souls who never understood it.
Algebra is actually one of the more useful subjects i've taken.
Any form of math that has letters in it is useless.
I remember algebra class. There were two guys who were whizzes at it and the rest of us who ranged from pathetic to barely competent. The two whizzes were very different people. One was a semi-retarded fellow about 6'2" (at age 14) who could barely put two intelligible words together. But he was very good with numbers and was especially adept at abstract geometry which he worked on with our teacher (having aced algebra before the year was out). He probably works for NASA today. Or maybe the CIA. Something with computers.
The other was short, pudgy and had a short crewcut. He rarely spoke and gave the impression that it was because anything he might say to the cretins around him would be wasted effort (he was not arrogant he just knew he was a lot smarter than the rest of us - and he was). He passed algebra one and two in one semester and was through trig and starting calculus before the end of the second semester. This one is probably well along in his plot for world domination and we will all be heiling him before New Year's day 2008.
pass around the lyman allen games to these kids. i was playing "equations" in 3d grade, didn't know what algebra was at that point, but i was doing it just fine because it was a game.