Everyone learns math differently. If the method of teaching failed to teach, trying the same thing again is not really going to work if the student was motivated.
True, so true.
1) Must want to learn it, or wasting time.
2)Instructor must be capable of explainng it in a way to enable understanding by the motivated student.
If the student was motivated.
That's the key. I'm not here to defend the public schools, but, once upon a time, it was the responsibility of the child to get an education.
Algebra is challenging -- but not that tough if the prerequisites have been learned. A majority of the students in this school system probably passed Algebra. I don't lose sleep and I hate to lose more tax dollars fretting over the others.
Our entire country, including the education system, is being geared toward the failures. I mean, just look at the last election results.
At least 3/4 of the failures occur because for one reason or another, the student does not try and does not care.
The reasons for that are many and varied. But it’s not that hard to learn if you want to learn it.
Since you asked, IMO it’s a lethal combination causing such self destructive behavior; 1) lack of parenting and 2) culture of shunning responsibility.
Kids do not think there is any consequence for failing to give effort.
Not even close. The California class rooms use so damned many different techniques it is more astonishing that everyone doesn’t get it. The children failing algebra 1 in California tend to not go to class, not do the home work, and have NO ability to do simple arithmetic (you remember those tables you learned in first and second grade). Nice try though
Algebra is actually very simple...and it is usually terribly taught. I hated it until I took a college class for teaching math in the primary grades from a woman who was herself a truly gifted teacher. She showed us that algebra (and geometry) were just more ways of saying and doing the same basic mathematical operations and simply expanded on them or adapted them to different situations - 3 dimensional space, for example, or even logic operations. And we did this using the Montessori bean sticks...(plus she really loved her subject, which most math teachers do not).
So there are some subjects in which the fault really may lie not so much with the student or the individual teacher as with the method of teaching the subject.
Exactly! Our daughter took pre-AP classes in 8th grade. She struggled with algebra, so much so her grades went down and we ended up changing her to a "regular" math course. When she started her Freshman year she whizzed through Algebra . . . that was due to the teacher knowing how to teach.
Yep - I could never remember the multiplication tables so i opted to do a combination of multiplications/additions - 9X7 became 3X7 (21) and 21X3 = 63