Concentrated WILLING ignorance

[Dark Jaguar]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...01989.html

It's all well and good that this person has decided he can get something else to do his math for him, and has decided that calculating something so simple as HIGH SCHOOL ALGEBRA is just too hard and pointless. However, who does he think makes those calculators and computers? If kids are given half a chance, they won't be learning math at all, and we'll get a nation of dullards. Oh right...

[Sacred Jellybean]

What is so hard about high school algebra?? I don't get that. It came kind of naturally to me, and I've since used it many times. It sounds like an attitude problem to me.

[Dark Jaguar]

Indeed... How does this guy actually muddle through life? Does he just copy and paste all the numbers he deals with into some form and let something else do the math?

Get me right, I'm not against calculators. I LOVE those devices. I'm just saying one must have an understanding of what the calculator is DOING or they are being intellectually lazy, and en masse, that can only result in no more calculators for anyone.

[The Former DMiller]

Here we go again. The truth is you may not use Algebra or any other high school math in the real world, but how many high school freshmen are 100% sure of what they are going to do after high school? I didn't know what I wanted to do until I was a junior in college. Not learning Algebra closes quite a lot of doors and this anti-math mindset is one of the reasons our country is falling behind in math and science. Although I think most of No Child Left Behind is a little heavy-handed I applaud that fact that many states are requiring more math, and not just because I'm a math teacher. Illinois recently changed the math requirement to 3 years of math for this year's freshmen, which would benefit many students as they would be able to take a consumer math class or something more practical along with Algebra and Geometry.

What is so hard about high school algebra?? I don't get that. It came kind of naturally to me, and I've since used it many times. It sounds like an attitude problem to me.

It isn't always attitude, although manytimes that is the case. A lot of students who hate math are infused with a hatred of it since they hear their parents and other people say they don't get math either so they think it's okay. People go around and say they don't get math like it's no big deal while you wouldn't hear someone brag that they don't know how to read. However, sometimes students just don't have a good aptitude for math, and you really can't blame them if they try hard.

[Sacred Jellybean]

Yeah, that's true. It's a difficult thing to punish someone, simply for lacking mental capabilities. I think math in general is an important enough standard uphold, though.

[Dark Jaguar]

The mental capability has to be there though. Our brains handle much larger and more complicated calculations almost constantly. It is rather annoying that we can't coopt even a little bit of that for our own custom designed purposes...