Studying Math - How Important Is It?
Recently BBC published an article by someone (names escape me really easily) who claimed that we should stop teaching math to students by age 14 at the latest, and really, he thought we could stop by age 11.
As a math educator I want to say WRONG! As a thinking person, with 9 years of experience trying to teach every child as much math as I possibly can, I fear he might be right. And he is not the only one I have heard say something similar. I have had a Superintendent ask me why we bother trying to teach algebra to the kids, that he never took algebra, never needed it, didn't see why we insisted on teaching it. I have had a principal say to me "Can't we just call it Algebra?" The number of parents who have told me they never could get math, were never good at math, who hated math, how their kids were taking math they never saw, even all the way through college and the kid is in 9th grade.
As a high school drop out, I can say I took algebra 1, and geometry in school before I dropped out, and I used every single bit of that math through 30 years of construction, and did not start to operate a profitable construction company until I went to college and continued to study mathematics. I do not believe that it was all the studying of math that allowed me to become profitable, but I am sure it did not hurt. And here is my real question -
Which does a child more harm - to be thrown into math courses year after year after year and being unsuccessful - even with caring, helping, supportive teachers and parents, or to get through school with out learning what we now have as a required math curriculum and quite possibly/probably not reaching their potential?
As a math educator I want to say WRONG! As a thinking person, with 9 years of experience trying to teach every child as much math as I possibly can, I fear he might be right. And he is not the only one I have heard say something similar. I have had a Superintendent ask me why we bother trying to teach algebra to the kids, that he never took algebra, never needed it, didn't see why we insisted on teaching it. I have had a principal say to me "Can't we just call it Algebra?" The number of parents who have told me they never could get math, were never good at math, who hated math, how their kids were taking math they never saw, even all the way through college and the kid is in 9th grade.
As a high school drop out, I can say I took algebra 1, and geometry in school before I dropped out, and I used every single bit of that math through 30 years of construction, and did not start to operate a profitable construction company until I went to college and continued to study mathematics. I do not believe that it was all the studying of math that allowed me to become profitable, but I am sure it did not hurt. And here is my real question -
Which does a child more harm - to be thrown into math courses year after year after year and being unsuccessful - even with caring, helping, supportive teachers and parents, or to get through school with out learning what we now have as a required math curriculum and quite possibly/probably not reaching their potential?
posted by Brian Every at 7:59 PM
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