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‘A Bankrupt Concept of Math’: Some Educators Argue Calculus Should Be Dethroned
The 74 via Yahoo ^ | March 13, 2023 | Jo Napolitano

Posted on 03/13/2023 1:30:37 PM PDT by grundle

Successful completion of high school calculus has long been an unofficial must-have for those seeking admission to the nation’s top colleges: The course has, for decades, served as a signal to admissions officers that a student’s coursework has been robust.

But some in education say it’s time to reconsider this de facto requirement: Many schools — particularly those serving large numbers of Black, Hispanic or low-income students — don’t offer the course. And even when they do, it’s of dubious value, they say.

“High school calculus is a complete waste of time and a form of torture,” said Alan Garfinkel, professor of integrative biology and physiology and medicine at UCLA. “The view … that math is a bunch of symbolic expressions, and you bang on them with tricks to get other symbolic expressions, is a bankrupt concept of math, dating from the 19th century.”

The course, as it’s often taught at the high school level, is inaccessible and often perceived as irrelevant to students’ interests, critics say. Just 16% of high school graduates earned credit for calculus in 2019, according to data culled by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a statistic no doubt shaped by its unavailability.

Only 52% of schools with high student of color enrollment offered the course in 2017-18 compared to 76% of schools with low student of color enrollment, according to a 2021 report from the Learning Policy Institute.

(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: alangarfinkel; astronomy; calculus; donatefreerepublic; physics; science; stringtheory
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To: Trumpet 1
How much calculus does a chemistry or biology or botany major need? Calculus is for engineering

IMHO that is debatable.

But even if true consider this:

Nothing makes it from dream, concept or prototype into physical reality available to the masses without engineering at some stage.

A chemist may discover a new polymer but it doesn't become a useful success on a large scale if production is limited to hand crafting small batches.

The solution to put it into mass production?

Engineering.

And the transportation vehicle or system to deliver it to users?

Engineered, of course

Canned foods, lotions, medicines, plant seeds, gasoline, pure water, plant food, cars, air travel, prepared foods at grocery stores and restaurants,
computers, appliances, movies, professional sports, newspapers, etc., etc.

All are widely available only through engineering somewhere in the process.

Dumbing down math is just plain dumb!


101 posted on 03/13/2023 5:46:56 PM PDT by Iron Munro ( Michael Byrd: "Well, Somebody had to do it - Babbitt wasn't gonna' shoot herself!")
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To: grundle

See.....
Math is racist...


102 posted on 03/13/2023 5:48:38 PM PDT by joe fonebone (And the people said NO! The End)
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To: grundle

103 posted on 03/13/2023 5:54:45 PM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: grundle

Meanwhile the Chinese are going, “Do it!”


104 posted on 03/13/2023 5:55:49 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: ridesthemiles
Don’t need calculus to carjack-—rob-—& other activities.

Maybe so, but it makes it easier to carjack if you know calculus.

105 posted on 03/13/2023 5:58:35 PM PDT by Auntie Dem (Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Terrorist lovers gotta go!)
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To: grundle

Honestly, calculus in high school is probably overkill for most students. A good mathematical foundation for college prep classes with rigorous courses in geometry, algebra, and trigonometry would probably suffice for most. Some study of probability and statistics would likely be more beneficial for most students than a calculus course. For those students interested in majoring in engineering, science, mathematics, or other disciplines requiring calculus, having an elective calculus course is fine.

There’s nothing magical about calculus that makes you automatically smart when you take it. It’s just a very useful branch of mathematics for many fields of study, but one that is not necessarily essential for the average citizen. It actually is not even really much more difficult to master than any other branch of math. The real issue is that it is most often taught with an eye to mathematical rigor rather than in a way that allows a more intuitive understanding. Anyone who has ever read a calculus text knows what I mean.

A good example is the basic concept of a limit. This is a concept that is readily understood intuitively. It is also a concept that is very confusing when expressed in mathematically rigorous fashion. Basically a limit is just a value a formula “gets clos to” when the input “gets close to” a specified value. It’s that “gets close to” part that’s tough to define rigorously. An example would help: consider the formula y= (x^2-1)/(x-1). For any value of x, we can calculate y using this formula, any value that is except for x=1. That value gives zero divided by zero, which we all learned is undefined. However we can look at values of x very close to 1 and see what happens. For x=0.99, we get y=1.99. For x=0.999 we get y=1.999, for x=1.0001 we get y=2.0001, and so on. Intuitively we see that as x gets close to 1, y gets close to 2, and indeed the limit as x approaches 1 for this function is indeed 2.

Basically at its heart, all calculus is is the study of limits. The derivative is just the limit of the slope formula (change in y)/(change in x) as we allow the change in x to approach zero. Integration is a limit process where we divide an area into rectangular regions whose area we know and add those areas. We find that we get a better approximation to the area by using narrower rectangles, so we take the limit as the width approaches zero. Infinite sums are just limits of finite sums as we allow the number of terms to increase. Basically once you grasp the idea of limits, calculus really is not that much harder than algebra or trigonometry.


106 posted on 03/13/2023 6:00:27 PM PDT by stremba
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To: fruser1

This is what I was referring to in my post. Most people, especially high school kids, just space out when confronted with a blob of mathematical symbols such as this.


107 posted on 03/13/2023 6:02:44 PM PDT by stremba
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To: grundle

When I took it in high school in the 70s, there were less than 20 students in the class. The graduating class was 660.

If 20% are now taking it, it has been dumbed down.

But it is still a valid part of math.


108 posted on 03/13/2023 6:08:51 PM PDT by Mr Rogers (We're a nation of feelings, not thoughts.)
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To: stremba

A good “BS Meter” requires a solid Math background.


109 posted on 03/13/2023 6:11:46 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

Certainly, but for most people that solid background does not necessarily require calculus. Don’t get me wrong, I would never discourage anyone from taking it. I just think statistics and probability would be a better way to develop that BS meter for most people. Most people don’t really need the to know the nuts and bolts of calculus. Certainly a good math program would also include geometry, algebra, and trigonometry as well.


110 posted on 03/13/2023 6:22:23 PM PDT by stremba
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To: BikerJoe

That’s funny. I guess if AI is a learning thing, it learns from its environment and lots of dumbed down folks getting those alexas now. So yeah I could see AI actually getting dumb


111 posted on 03/13/2023 6:24:46 PM PDT by pangaea6
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To: Tench_Coxe

Cursive is already out in most curricula… imagine not being able to read founding documents or other critical historical source materials.


112 posted on 03/13/2023 6:25:23 PM PDT by momincombatboots (BQEphesians 6... who you are really at war with)
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To: grundle

I had a professor that said “Higher mathematics is what separates the engineer from the guy that greases the bearings”. I was more comfortable with the grease can, but I learned enough to pass.


113 posted on 03/13/2023 7:24:49 PM PDT by Some Fat Guy in L.A. (Still bitterly clinging to rational thought despite its unfashionability)
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To: Fledermaus

If someone asks: “How much do I need to put into my 401K in order to retire before aage 60?” That takes calculus.


114 posted on 03/13/2023 7:28:25 PM PDT by norwaypinesavage (Did Norfolk Southern ESG and Equity policies cause the train derailment in East Palestine?)
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To: grundle

If you have the discipline to follow the rules of calculus it is an easy system to master.


115 posted on 03/13/2023 8:15:59 PM PDT by jonrick46 (Leftniks chase illusions of motherships at the end of the pier.)
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To: Trumpet 1

...and physics.


116 posted on 03/14/2023 5:45:56 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: fidelis

I presume your job didn’t involve designing rockets and lunar trajectories.


117 posted on 03/14/2023 5:47:17 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: Gay State Conservative

Calculus was developed to make minorities, womyn of color and gay, transgender and disabled childryn feel bad. It is a tool of oppression. One of the chapters in most calculus books is calculating the trajectory of grandma after we push her off a cliff.


118 posted on 03/14/2023 6:08:45 AM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: GingisK

Not everybody’s job does. Believe it or not, there are only so many people who desire to do these things. But I made an enviably good living for 13 years supporting those who did and who wouldn’t have got past the drawing board stage without people like me.


119 posted on 03/14/2023 6:51:29 AM PDT by fidelis (👈 Under no obligation to respond to rude, ignorant, abusive, bellicose, and obnoxious posts.)
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To: fidelis
I absolutely agree with you. Good examples of support personnel who are virtually unsung heroes are machinists, welders, and carpenters. There are many more.

In actual fact, I was too lazy to push the math very far. I settled with software. ;-D

120 posted on 03/14/2023 7:45:03 AM PDT by GingisK
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