<p>ecouter11–tracking is the way to go, it’s an old standard–however, it the “everyone wins” atmosphere here, most schools have done away with tracking because no one wants their kid in the “slow” class. They would rather have their child suffer through 13 years of school so they can say their child is a “top” student. It’s sad. At least in most high schools the classes track with the AP, honors, CP, regular, basic or whatever levels you find at bigger high schools.</p>
<p>Back when I was in elementary school, EVERYONE was in a track, fortunately they were not binding and subject specific, but still, it allowed students to push forward at the correct pace.</p>
<p>I don’t completely disagree with certain of the articles’ points. But I have to wonder how much of the “problems” that algebra is “causing” are really the residue of lousy approaches to teaching basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. </p>
<p>If you have an available 6th grader as a subject, ask them casually what is 6 times 6. Make up a few other multiplication problems of your own, using just one digit numbers. If you have a student who is in the average group, you’ll quickly see what the problem is in math education. It starts long before algebra. Most kids are counting on their fingers, effectively. </p>
<p>Some years back I watched a TV broadcast about the Algebra Project, which was established to help minority youth not be tracked away from college programs because of their inability to do basic algebra. I liked that approach.</p>
<p>I amazed that we can’t teach algebra proficiency to 95% of kids in 12 years x 200 hours.</p>
<p>That’s an amazing amount of time to waste.</p>
<p>I understand the problems: parents, teachers, schools, kids, culture, etc. Take care of the problems and use interesting methods and I think that the problem would go away. That’s totally unrealistic of course.</p>
<p>I have three kids. The first two sailed through Algebra in 8th grade without a scratch, as they are typical intelligent upper middle class children with educated parents. My third child, now in middle school, has learning disabilities and is probably two grades below where they say she should be in math. She completely understands the concept of multiplication but has problems with her memory and recall, so she doesn’t know her tables. She’s bright, has great ideas, funny, creative, likes to read, and is a hard worker, but her brain is not wired for advanced math, and it is going to be a struggle. I dread sending her to public high school so she can drill and fail and retake and retake the regents exams. What a waste of time, and how discouraging!. Especially when there are more important math skills that she will need in life. Under the current situation, it’s going to be hard for her to even get a high school diploma. </p>
<p>I feel it’s kids like my youngest daughter that this article addresses. And I desperately wish that things could change.</p>
<p>Part of the problem is that most people are not aware of what mathematics really is. A lot of people are shocked when I tell them as a math major, I have never needed a calculator for any of my classes - and it’s not because I’m any good at arithmetic. I’m not sure where the idea that a class on calculating the consumer price index or balancing a check book is a suitable replacement for math came from. Or maybe we should have English classes where you create powerpoint presentations instead of writing essays?</p>
<p>We are just beginning our serious struggle with stratification of educational tracks in this country; economically we may no longer be able to afford the illusion that everyone is going to college. While we’re working through the death of this “college is for everyone” myth, and finally offering appropriate vocational options for students who need and deserve them, it would be a national tragedy of epic proportion to redirect our efforts towards making college a dumbed down credentially experience so we can continue kidding ourselves about the state of education in the U.S.</p>
<p>Most math teachers in high school, and I dare say, most professors of math in college, from my experience at least, are not interested in teaching. There’s something very wrong if teachers/profs can’t explain relatively straightforward stuff, let alone complex stuff.</p>
<p>If I was running a university and saw Calc 3 / Diff Eq pass rates similar to what I’ve seen in my college career, I would be wondering how come someone is smart enough to get to Diff Eq to begin with, yet repeat Diff Eq 2-3 times…</p>
<p>When (from my experience) the deciding factor in passing math is not student effort but who the teacher was, we have a BIG problem…</p>
<p>turbo - I agree we definitely can use more talent in teaching math, but the author of this article is advocating business math over algebra; which sidesteps the whole question of looking for better teachers and says - you won’t be using that anyway so we don’t need to teach it.</p>
<p>At the risk of alienating more math professors than possible, let me say that math at the college level is taught with little concern as to where or how it will be used. I.e. the whats-in-it-for-me factor. </p>
<p>Likewise, at the high school level, it’s all taught as a bunch of abstractions by people who just want to go home after school or hit the jackpot @ $50/hr tutoring (their own students often :)). </p>
<p>By and large my problems at both the college and hs level are the lack of meaningful exercises / projects in math classes, the lack of good teachers, and the dependence on winner-take-all multiple choice tests…</p>
<p>Math is all about practice and homework and seeing how things progress from the easy to the hard (think Kumon). In every class in high school I was flabbergasted to see that half of more of the problem types were stuff completely absent from homework assignments and the like. Between this and making homework count 10% if that, no wonder we’re seeing results like those.</p>
<p>DD1’s college Calc class is an interesting concept, 25% homeworks (online), 25% weekly quizzes (online), 25% midterm, 25% final. LOTS of homework (the paper based workbook is 1 1/2 inches thick), and tricky weekly quizzes, but it tends to stay in your head that way…</p>
<p>In a school district that is top rated in the state (US Midwest) DD1 spent umpteen years at Kumon from 1st grade on. She had no problems in middle school, participated in math competitions, and aced Algebra. A few lousy math teachers later in high school DD1 was as good in math as my pet guinea pigs… And it wasn’t for lack of trying or parental involvement.</p>
<p>Math is difficult to explain - no question about it. But not impossible. I’ve had awesome teachers / profs in my life in some math or statistics areas. I can do linear programming, regression, analysis of variance, optimization, probability, numerical analysis, and the like, most with excellent teachers/profs, but what is it with calculus specifically that makes nearly every prof I ever had in calculus teach like a clown?</p>
<p>One of the biggest complaints I hear from math professors is that students expect that homework and test questions be carbon copies of example problems in the text book or that were gone over in class. The expectation is that they use the ideas taught in class to problems in which they are not obviously applicable at first glance, rather than memorizing algorithms.</p>
<p>It is already done in the US. Top level track is usually AP / honors, while other tracks are likely to leave a college bound student in remedial courses in college.</p>
<p>I wish I had more time to elaborate-ucb, but I must go to sleep or I’ll be late for work tomorrow. However, I think these tracks should be more selective and more strongly adhered to. Adjustments should be made so that all students are taught at levels that are appropriate for them. However, this requires that teachers actually care. </p>
<p>I 100% agree with Turbo that good teachers are crucial. I also did Kumon- nearly completed the program, though I had begun to slack off towards the end :P. However, my teachers, even at a very well respected suburban HS in NY were MAD that I was ahead of the curve. My math-physics genius friend who will be attending Columbia this fall also heard similar stuff. In particular, my Algebra 2/Trig Honors teacher was atrocious. She seemed unhappy to be there, was uninterested in the students, seemed like she was insecure, rude to students when the asked questions etc.
That, coupled with immense family problems simply did not work for me, and I was given a B+ for the class, my mathematics confidence destroyed.</p>
<p>However, after coming to Canada, not only did I totally skip pre-calc, but I earned the top marks in both Calculus AB/BC. Why? Because my teacher was extremely energetic and invested in her students. I could literally ask her 10000 questions in 1 class and she wouldn’t mind. I worked at it too, though. If I didn’t understand a concept, I would study, ask, do practice questions until I fully understood it the same day. It wasn’t terribly difficult, but if you ask me even now about the concepts, I am sure I will remember them. I just set aside some time for math and went at it. </p>
<p>So yeah, being good at math requires dedicated students and teachers. Algebra and Geometry are hardly impossible subjects and are widely applicable. If people work at it and get adequate support, passing those two classes is not an impossible feat.</p>
<p>Canada in general seems to do high school education to a higher standard and greater consistency than the US does. Universities in Canada do not require students in Canadian high schools to submit standardized test scores, presumably because they can trust what a given high school course and grade means. They do require students in US high schools to submit standardized test scores.</p>
<p>ARITHMETIC needs to be taught in elementary school- we all need to know how to count, add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers just as we need basic reading, spelling and the ability to put numbers and letters on a piece of paper- the mechanics preceding using the basics to do so much. MATHEMATICS can use numbers and symbols or prove relationships- think of a problem based versus a proof based college calculus course (the latter being the Honors sequence at UW-Madison).</p>
<p>I found the opening article link disturbing. Some of the comments regarding not needing to learn math if you are not good at it and won’t need it for some fields is like saying you don’t need to read literature extensively or do much writing if you don’t like it or are not good at it in HS. Understanding outlasts the details. It is disheartening for a sociologist to think no understanding of the principles used in the needed statistics et al is necessary.</p>
<p>Decades after taking calculus I couldn’t do it (and back then we didn’t have any calculators, much less scientific ones to take away the drudgery of getting the problem’s answers) but I still remember how the relationship mathematically between speed and acceleration makes sense- not just two formulas to memorize but being able to transform one to the other using calculus, it made so much easier to remember them. Likewise understanding algebra and geometry means understanding relationships in the world even if you can no longer solve the problems later. One problem in math is in mastering the vocabulary needed to manipulate symbols instead of using paragraphs of words leading to pages and pages instead of a few lines. Math helps train the brain to think symbolically and logically, an ability necessary even for the most “free spirited” among us.</p>
<p>Some students have subtle learning disabilities for math just as some do for reading. These are the exceptions rather than the rule, however. Math teaching can make a huge difference in liking it and being successful at it. Back in my elementary days the “new math” of the early-mid 1960’s was taught.Somehow learning about bases other than ten sticks in my mind- and this was before the ubiquitness of computers and binary importance.</p>
<p>USA shouldn’t even ranked 22nd!i came here last year I did 10th grade(trigonometry)and it was for babies so i self teach my self pre-calc because I was bored doing trigonometry!</p>