<p>My son took an evening calculus course at a local university when he was 15. The professor basically had the students memorize formulas and templates. No theory at all - just rules and templates. I was shocked. The professor was well-regarded in his research so it appears that he was taking one for the team. These students were in engineering programs and had to pass a four-course calculus sequence for their degree. I would not want to hire these engineers.</p>
<p>I had him take it over again in the day school (he already knew most of the material) and he had a great professor. If you couldn’t keep up, you’d flunk out of the course. He provided what you would expect from a professor - not a lot of hand holding, high expectations and some effort to challenge students.</p>
<p>I think that four-year university degrees should include a year of calculus (calculus for business or social sciences would be fine). Just as almost all degree programs that I’ve seen require a year of writing, typically Comp/Research and Literature.</p>
<p>Doing remediation is very hard from what I’ve seen. The love of math (I think that it’s natural in young kids) may be driven out. Kids may wonder what the point is. Or they may learn it incorrectly. Fixing that is very, very hard because you’ve lost their interest and attention.</p>