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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: Mariner

Gibs me dat sheepskin so’s I can be paid real money!


21 posted on 03/13/2023 1:55:33 PM PDT by rx
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To: Mariner

All a part of cultural Marxism and their attack on the wealthy capitalist Christian (white) nations


22 posted on 03/13/2023 1:55:34 PM PDT by himno hero (had'nff)
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To: grundle
professor of integrative biology and physiology and medicine at UCLA

No math in any of those titles.

Typical -- probably flunked calculus or got a low grade, and is now trying to get his revenge.

23 posted on 03/13/2023 1:58:27 PM PDT by PallMal
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To: Joe Brower
'"a bankrupt concept of math, dating from the 19th century"... so says the "professor of integrative biology and physiology

I'm not sure what this guy's specialty is, but history ain't it. Calculus was invented by English mathematician Isaac Newton in the 1660s, which is the 17th century.

24 posted on 03/13/2023 2:00:21 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (LORD, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: grundle

I think we should get rid of schools that get rid of standards.


25 posted on 03/13/2023 2:00:22 PM PDT by Ge0ffrey
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To: grundle

For engineering you need calculus. For art, history, English literature, foreign languages, you do not. For business administration you need business math. A high school college prep kid can take 2 years of algebra and 1 year of geometry and 1 year of business math and be completed ready to do college non-engineering. How much calculus does a chemistry or biology or botany major need? Calculus is for engineering.


26 posted on 03/13/2023 2:02:20 PM PDT by Trumpet 1 (US Constitution is my guide.)
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To: Tench_Coxe

Yep just have the AI read everything to you off the phone and then u speak and AI will type it for you, calculate it for etc. Dumbing down of people so they can be easily controlled. Fahrenheit 451, no need for books or thinking


27 posted on 03/13/2023 2:03:16 PM PDT by pangaea6
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To: IrishBrigade
...and as far as fostering abstract thought, coursework in logic and rhetoric would serve far better than distant mathmatical concepts...

I'm with you. Not knowing Calculus never kept me from doing what I wanted to do in life or from being a productive member of society. On the other hand, having experience in logic and rhetoric has made be a better thinker and speaker than almost anyone I know with an advanced degree, most of whom have been educated into imbecility topped with arrogance.

28 posted on 03/13/2023 2:03:59 PM PDT by fidelis (👈 Under no obligation to respond to rude, ignorant, abusive, bellicose, and obnoxious posts.)
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To: grundle

Basic calculus is the first math students encounter that enables simple modeling of how the world works. The concepts of first derivatives, second derivatives, integration (area-under-a-curve) are fundamental to a basic understanding of our world.

Sure one can get by without, because stuff like acceleration, momentum, gravity, all work even if one doesn’t understand the basics about them. And obviously people can develop an intuition about such things by other means. But absent a basic understanding of calculus you are flying blind.

The same can be said for basic statistics and probability.

Don’t get me started on basic engineering physics or electronics — so many people cruising through life without understanding how phones, radios, engines, airplanes, and so on work. I can’t imagine living like that where everything around you that makes society tick is so opaque.

I feel similarly about important legal principles like contract law, real property law, torts, and so on. They also work and effect your life even if you do not understand them.


29 posted on 03/13/2023 2:04:08 PM PDT by 13foxtrot
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To: grundle
... and we're back to The Bell Curve.
30 posted on 03/13/2023 2:04:54 PM PDT by Carl Vehse
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To: grundle

Bfl


31 posted on 03/13/2023 2:05:41 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (“You want it one way, but it's the other way”)
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To: grundle

Calculus is excellent for determining the area of strange shaped object with curves. Not everything is expressed in square shapes. This is where calculus shines.


32 posted on 03/13/2023 2:06:33 PM PDT by Flavious_Maximus (Tony Fauci will be put on death row and die of COVID!)
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To: grundle

As a retired Math teacher, I can say with some confidence that if it wasn’t for Math in general (and perhaps Calculus in particular) we’d still be living in trees.


33 posted on 03/13/2023 2:08:16 PM PDT by Jack023
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To: I want the USA back
Seriously, my very first calculus teacher some decades ago was black, and man did he know his stuff.

On his off time, he would take out a Sherlock Holmes pipe -- I still remember that aromatic pipe smoke wafting through the air.

34 posted on 03/13/2023 2:11:12 PM PDT by PallMal
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To: grundle
Just 16% of high school graduates earned credit for calculus in 2019

In many, if not most school districts, Calculus is an AP class. Most students don't even qualify to enroll. I know, I know, AP classes are racist.

35 posted on 03/13/2023 2:11:19 PM PDT by ETCM (“There is no security, no safety, in the appeasement of evil.” — Ronald Reagan)
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To: grundle
Many schools — particularly those serving large numbers of Black, Hispanic or low-income students — don’t offer the course.

How many of those schools have zero students achieving basic competency on math, much less algebra, geometry or trigonometry? Don't kill calculus just because it shames the "we was kangs" crowd.

The one year of high school calculus was enough to let me skip the first two quarters in college and gor directly to Calculus III.

36 posted on 03/13/2023 2:15:29 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (Gain of Pfunction. Gain of Pfunding. Gain of Pfizer. Now in control of Project Pferitas.)
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To: grundle
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.

Generally speaking, you need Algebra I and II and geometry and trig before you get to calculus. I'm guessing the schools referenced above don't have a very strong math curriculum period.

37 posted on 03/13/2023 2:15:41 PM PDT by Rummyfan (In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized of man.)
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To: Tench_Coxe

“..Then multiplication and division. Then reading and writing. ...”

Wow...who knew those were even taught anymore!!!
I thought those already went out the window years ago for “condom on a banana” training. /s


38 posted on 03/13/2023 2:16:48 PM PDT by lgjhn23 ("On the 8th day, Satan created the progressive liberal to destroy all the good that God created...")
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To: grundle
“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.”

Interesting that they quote a biology / medical professor on the importance of calculus. Whatever... the way it has been taught produced scientists and engineers who split the atom, got us to the moon and back, and developed modern telecommunications. So obviously it must go!

39 posted on 03/13/2023 2:17:43 PM PDT by Rummyfan (In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized of man.)
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To: grundle

Maf be raysis!


40 posted on 03/13/2023 2:19:19 PM PDT by glorgau
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