Nicholson Baker hates math. The novelist makes his case courses in American education are at best, wrongheaded, and at worst, downright cruel. If we would just do away with upper-level math requirements in high school, the high school dropout rate would decline, Baker says in his post. Many educators agree that Algebra is the main reason students drop out. Baker points out that many of today's math requirements are relics of the Cold War. In 1950, only 25 percent of students in the U.S. were taking algebra. Cornell University mathematician Steven Strogatz says "We need less math for the average kid, We spend a lot of time avalanching students with the answers to things that they wouldn't think of asking." Baker responded with " We need a brief class for ninth graders, to go over the tougher stuff with their own learning prospective" . If math were an elective choice, "American science and technology would be unharmed, and a lot of poisonous math hatred would go away instantly. Kids don't hate smelting, or farming, or knitting, or highway design, or portrait painting, or neurology, or juggling rubber balls, or sonnet-writing, because they don't have to take three years of instruction in any of these arts," says Baker. He says math is for that one weird enthusiastic kid. "And the rest of us could be spared the effort of trying to find an equation for tears shed per problem."
1) Why do people hate Algebra?
2) What grade is Algebra required by?
3) How is Algebra used in life?
Baker, N. (2013, August` 19). Should math really be a required subject?. Retrieved from http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-08/argument-against-algebra
No comments:
Post a Comment