This one should delight outsourcing agencies

[IDemo]

Is Algebra an Unnecessary Stumbling Block in US Schools?

Who needs algebra?

That question muttered by many a frustrated student over the years has become a vigorous debate among American educators, sparked by a provocative new book that argues required algebra has become an unnecessary stumbling block that forces millions to drop out of high school or college.

"One out of 5 young Americans does not graduate from high school. This is one of the worst records in the developed world. Why? The chief academic reason is they failed ninth-grade algebra," said political scientist Andrew Hacker, author of "The Math Myth and Other STEM Delusions."

Hacker, a professor emeritus at Queens College, argues that, at most, only 5 percent of jobs make use of algebra and other advanced math courses. He favors a curriculum that focuses more on statistics and basic numbers sense and less on (y - 3)2 = 4y - 12.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/algebra-unnecessary-stumbling-block-us-schools-37964202

[HassleCat]

1. It makes a certain amount of sense.

Most math is taught by math geeks, people who can glance at a complex polynomial equation and factor it in eight seconds. This is fun for them because it's easy for them, and they teach math as if everyone should solve problems just for the fun of getting the right answer. The interesting thing about math whizzes is that they are often not very good at other things, even simple math. Thus, we have someone getting a PhD in knot theory who can't figure out a 15 percent tip at the restaurant. Don't laugh. That's a real example, someone who is a friend of mine. This leads to people who get degrees in electrical engineering because they are good at math, but don't know the difference between AM and FM radio. Again, don't laugh, because this is another real example.

I believe math should be taught as it is used. This means all problems would be word problems, a notion that strikes fear into the hearts of many people. But we would have people who could actually do math by constructing equations that solve real problems in their fields. Math geeks who could adapt could continue to be chemists, engineers, etc. Math geeks who could not adapt would have to find research jobs somewhere. Not as math teachers!

[IDemo]

8. degrees in electrical engineering

Was that as in a Bachelor's, a E.E.? I spent 20 years in high tech R&D and it strains credulity that someone gained employment without having a good handle on waveform analysis, which is all about math. It's fundamental to the field, regardless of whether one is in Broadcast engineering or otherwise.

[HassleCat]

12. The whole story.

This person worked for the federal government, and she got her EE degree at the same school I attended, although I studied philosophy and political science. Our school, a medium sized state university, was noted for being lax in some of its engineering programs at the baccalaureate level. We were having a discussion about how to adapt to a new requirement to narrow the bandwidth of the the VHF FM radios we used, I think from 50 kHz to 25 kHz. She was telling us that the audio would be garbled and distorted, and she drew a picture of an AM waveform with the peaks clipped off. A couple of us tried explaining to her that FM (or PM in some of the radios) would lose some volume, but would not suffer from the same kind of problems as AM audio. We drew pictures of the FM waveform, talked about significant sidebands, etc. but there was no comprehension at all. We might as well have tried explaining it to the desk. Subsequent discussions revealed she knew almost nothing about electricity and electronics, certainly much, much less than any of the technicians who worked for her. She was good at math, so we concluded that's how she got through college, by working math problems. Maybe she cheated. I don't know. But she was useless.

[IDemo]

13. Incredible

that she was able to achieve a EE without understanding some basic concepts. It sounds like she had to have had some help in doing so. Most such programs will find themselves exposed sooner than later when it comes to graduates attempting to perform in the hiring process and on the job.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

9. This math major sometimes has a hard time figuring the 15% tip. My solution: ...

... give 20%. You can figure that, even after a glass of wine.

[valerief]

2. What is so difficult about the equation given that it can't be taught properly

to a high school student? Are high school kids that dumb now? Or are teaching methods that dumb now?

[CrispyQ]

3. I'm wondering the same thing.

I think it's time. The kids either don't have the time or don't make the time to do the problems. You have to work through the problem to learn algebra. I know it was many, many years ago, but I recall algebra homework taking a long time to do. Remember the answers to the odd questions were always in the back. And exams were open book. At least in my school. You had access to all the rules, which were printed on the inside covers. My teacher said that having access to the book didn't help you if you didn't know what to do with it.

I hate to see us dumbing future generations down even more. So what if you don't use algebra every day, it's good brain exercise to learn it & to know the concepts behind it. Why does every thing have to get down to if you use it every day? Civics applies to our lives everyday, but a lot of schools no longer teach that.

[Pakhet]

6. I think part of it is teaching method. I took algebra 4 times

and never could get it. I thought I was stupid, but geometry, chemistry and physics were never much of a problem for me. Passed those classes and failed every algebra class I ever took.

On edit: I'm "old" LOL 52 next week, so it wasn't "modern" methods

[world wide wally]

4. Headlines you'll never see:

"Farmer in Iowa uses algebra"

[Wounded Bear]

5. So, they're supposed to do statistics without algebra?

I mean The ability to solve equations, and to formulate them properly, is the heart of analyzing numerical data. I suppose, if you think all human workers have to do is key stroke the data in, that might be true, but that leaves the programming and the actual analysis to foreigners, which is at the root of the problem. This guy's answer seems to be, fuck our own children and workers, we can hire H1B's to handle the heavy lifting.

[Dr. Strange]

11. I know, right?

Biggest complaint from statistics faculty regarding undergraduates taking stats courses: they don't know algebra.
Biggest complaint regarding graduate students taking graduate stats courses: they don't know calculus.

[Scuba]

7. Republicans want to strip education down to the basics - football and cheerleading.

[Wounded Bear]

10. Sadly, I LOL'd at that...sucks that it's basically true nt

[X_Digger]

14. Wait, what? Statistics without simple equations like those found in algebra??

If you thought plugging numbers into the quadratic equation is hard, you really want to stay the hell away from stats.

What the fuck is he smoking?

Hell, something as simple as comparing per ounce prices at the supermarket is based on algebra. Or figuring out how much something will cost at the register with a 5% sale and 8% sales tax..

For fuck's sake.

*sigh*

[jcboon]

15. Maybe it needs to be taught differently.

[AdHocSolver]

16. There are two skill sets that need to be learned to solve math problems using algebra.

One skill is solving equations.

The other skill is setting up equations that will give the correct solution to the problem to be solved.

I was fortunate to have an excellent algebra teacher who taught us how to solve various types of equations. Then she taught us how to select equations to solve specific types of problems.

In each case, she used numerous examples and walked us through the procedures SHE would use until her procedures made sense to us. In other words, she taught us the logic of algebra.

This was in the days before pocket calculators. The students went through the steps of setting up and working through solutions.

We didn't have calculators or computers to use as crutches. We actually had to learn algebra.

Moreover, our teachers were allowed to teach the subject. They weren't forced to "teach to the test".

(y - 3)2 = 4y - 12; 2y - 6 = 4y - 12; 2y = 6; y = 3;

By the way, Hacker is wrong. How can you understand or solve statistics problems, or any kind of math problem, without knowing algebra?

I had a statistics course, and while I utilized algebra at several jobs, I never once ever used statistics.