Illustration by Adam Hayes for the New York Times
The New York Times recently ran an opinion piece entitled Is Algebra Necessary?
It questions whether schools focus too much on trying to teach a subject that causes many students to drop out of school entirely, with some schools seeing as many as 45% failing to finish high school.
Please have a read of the full article and let us know your thoughts on this important subject.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/is-algebra-necessary.html?_r=2&smid=tw-share
I have a very biased opinion (I work in software, clearly math/science/tech heavy). But algebra doesn't seem all that advanced to me. How do you use trig without algebra? How does a business person decide how much to charge for a product and still make a profit without algebra? How do you set a family budget or manage retirement plans without algebra? Even fairly manual labor including jobs in construction or foodservice would vastly benefit from knowing how to solve at least basic algebra (e.g. resource planning). Probably, those people already do algebra but they don't think of it in terms of X and Y.
Yeah, I can see how some of the more advanced parts of algebra are not that applicable to every day life, but I can't see how the basics can possibly be considered completely unnecessary for even very non-mathematical jobs.
I would fully support having our schools provide other ways to accelerate learning or exploring of topics. It is typically up to us parents to provide the advanced atheletics or music or writing (or whatever other gifts our kids have) by searching out extra curricular activities for them, though any individual school has limited resources and it isn't usually feasible to offer a subject that very few kids would be interested in taking. It would be nice of schools and communities could pool their resources more for those so-called "extras" to make them available to the kids who don't have parents with money and time to spare to go hunt it down themselves.This is kind of a tricky topic that causes a split of opinion even in my own mind. On one hand, I feel algebra is necessary as a stepping stone into higher math (like trig and calc). But on the other hand, I have heard that in some foreign countries, they have two separate sets of schools, one set focuses on "liberal arts" like history, language, writing, etc. and the other focuses on STEM-like subjects and kids have to decide what they are going to be when they grow up and go to the appropriate school.
On the one hand, it seems like that would be beneficial because they can focus only on the subjects that they are really interested in and will benefit their future career.
But on the other hand, pre-college education, when most kids are still trying to figure out what they want to be, should provide a wide range of "general education" to a)provide the basics of knowledge about subjects that really do affect everyday life and b)allow students to experience a wide range of subjects that might pique their interest that they never would have previously considered.
For example, when I was in High School, one of our electives we had to choose between Anthropology or Psychology. up until high school I had wanted to be either a paleontologist or archaeologist, so Anthropology would have been the safer choice, but at that time, I began to feel that being away on digs for months at a time would make it difficult to raise a family so I realized I needed to figure something else out. My brother and best friend each took the psych class and loved it so I decided to give it a try. I loved it so much I earned my bachelor's in it and, after I finish pharmacy school, hope to specialize in psychiatric pharmacy. None of that would have happened if I didn't have a school that offered it.
Well OK, except for the fact that math isn't failing! I know it's a common theme: "the US is something_other_than_first_in_the_world in science and math scores." When someone tells you that, you should ask them to show their work. Where is the Global Math Test that was administered to all students or adults world wide to draw such a dire conclusion.
I'm a math guy. I get math. I actually fell in love with it because of algebra. But any honest dialog about this must admit that not everyone gets math the same way you and I do. You say it's about functional relationships, but to some, it's alphabet soup. Not because they are dumb, or not smart enough, but because they are gifted in other areas. And what I'm saying is that there is no parallel track for those students!
Can everyone/almost everyone "pass" algebra? No doubt. Will some struggle mightily to do so? No doubt. I argue that for those, their time might be better spent at doing something they'll love instead of something they hate and will not pursue post graduation.
In many ways this is completely missing the mark - if literacy was falling we definitely would not be talking about decreasing reading classes. Algebra is important. Plain and simple. Why? Algebra is all about functional relationships. We are surrounded by functional relationships (for instance a very simple function maps my keyboard keys to a specific alphabet). In addition, education is not about getting a job. It never has been. It is about creating a society in which the members have a solid grasp of the world that surrounds them so that they can make informed decisions concerning their lives and future.
A different question is whether we are teaching algebra in a useful way to all students? I think increasing the flexibility of teaching algebra to students is a more worthy topic - but obviously one which would not garner all this attention for the author...The article's title is a little misleading. The author isn't arguing that Algebra isn't necessary, but that it's not necessary for everyone.
I have three kids: one who graduated high school last year, two who are in middle school now. Our oldest took Algebra in 8th grade, the earliest that you could when he was in middle school, unless you were off-the-charts genius. One of my middle schoolers took Algebra in 7th grade, same thing, the earliest you can take it unless... When I was in school, pretty much everyone took Algebra in 9th grade or later.
While I have no problem with pushing higher math down to younger students who can handle it, the question arises: what about other subjects? Why do we only push/reward students with mathematic aptitude? The path for the science and English curricula are basically the same as when I was in high school, 25 years ago. Ditto for art, music, athletics, history, etc.
The point the author makes is that by making Algebra so important, we overlook other gifts and aptitudes. Kids who are gifted at writing may benefit more from higher-level reading or writing classes. Instead, we force square pegs into round holes with the idea that everyone can/should do this.
I think it's important to expose children to as many school subjects as possible. That way they can decide what they like and move in that direction. I have used algebra in my personal and professional life. It might have only been solve for x, and not double replacement. I didn't need a graph, but I did need that exposure so I could solve real life problems. Considering that and the fact that the US is being left behind when it comes to math and sciences we need to show students what's out there. Should we set them up to fail by making them take four years of a subject they have no aptitude for? No. However we shouldn't just not give them the chance to succeed either.
Personally, I can't think of a single time I've used algebra in the 20 years since I left school - apart from trying to work out some of the GeekDad weekly puzzles (which I'm not even allowed to enter!), so I can see why this might make sense. I use trigonometry regularly when building stuff around the house, but algebra and calculus always seemed pretty pointless to me - and I studied Maths up to A-Level here in the UK.
The author makes a valid point about how "Making mathematics mandatory prevents us from discovering and developing young talent" - as the mathematical and artistic/creative sides of the brain often develop and work differently, but in my own case, my mathematical mind has informed my creative career. I'm a web designer with a very geometric illustration style. I like to create, neat clean code, with pixel-perfect layouts and admire minimal design, symmetry and simplicity - and I believe this all stems from learning maths at school.
Source: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/07/is-algebra-necessary/
0 comments:
Post a Comment