Posted on 07/21/2017 5:12:11 AM PDT by C19fan
Algebra is one of the biggest hurdles to getting a high school or college degree — particularly for students of color and first-generation undergrads.
It is also the single most failed course in community colleges across the country. So if you're not a STEM major (science, technology, engineering, math), why even study algebra?
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
The intricacies of Linear Algebra were brought home to our college class by a professor who gave a true/false test on the subject. The class average was below 50%—an impressive achievement.
“Difficult equations” was the hardest math class for me. The hardest class overall was Signals and Systems. Analog and discrete math applied to analysis of communication systems. Ugh.
So if first you don’t succeed, try again.
Has now become...
If first you don’t succeed, lower the standards.
It’s saying that Blacks and Hispanics are too stupid to learn Algebra, and for that reason Algebra should not be taught. Precisely the kind of thinking that got us where we are now.
Correct thinking: Algebra needs to be taught. Those who fail are not given a degree.
Not impossible at all:
a = 1
while (a<10) do
sum = sum + a
a = a+1
write(*,*) ‘a =’, a
enddo
Algebra was my favorite class in college...I took it three times.
I’m just not the logical thinker mathematically.
My son wanted to be an aerospace engineer since he was about four. (OK, when he was four, he wanted to build rockets)
We homeschooled him and he did fine in high school math. His senior year, he took an algebra class at community college and eked by with a C- or something. He also took a trig class and aced it.
The kid is lousy at basic math but hammers through the hard stuff. He’s also living his dream. He’s a senior aerospace engineering student and his college job is at NASA.
As much as I hated algebra, they shouldn’t get rid of it, but there should be an available alternative such as consumer math etc in some programs.
In the 70’s I was #2 in academics (math major) for my ROTC Class, #3 was a chemistry major. The #1 ranking was to a PE major.
As the saying goes, “Life's not fair, get over it.”
When you have the right professor, calculus and what it does is utterly fascinating. Just about all of what we have in technology would not be here without it.
The soft bigotry of low expectations on full display.
Also used in Java, C+, Python, etc - yet sometimes I still code it wrong the first time.
How did you do in trigonometric substitution?
These kids are not stupid. It is completely the fault of the “New-new- math” curriculums in the schools.
Another Reason to Homeschool ....and....to use Saxon Math.
“And there is only one right answer.”
Quadratic equations have two right answers. :)
It’s all about symbolic definitions. He was unwilling to learn a new symbolic language. “Equals” is not the same as “is assigned the value of”, though they both use “=” symbolically.
Who knew that requiring college students to take an algebra course was the cause of all our social ills?
It is assigning a NEW VALUE to a....
Was the teacher unable to explain that?
It is not a mathematical statement, of course algebraically A is not equal to A+1...
She is a poor teacher if she could not explain that in certain languages the ‘=’ sign means to execute an ASSIGNMENT, it is not an algebraic expression of mathematical equivalence.
The statement means STORE a new value into A, the current value of A plus 1.
So if A currently holds 4, the new value of A after the statement executes would be A = 4 + 1 or 5.
I thought Algebra was for HS & Calculus was for College...
That is what I had in the 1970s.
But we put men on the moon then, now we drive Toyotas and cannot search a school locker.
And we wonder why we have a huge student load default rate.
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