Re: A Mathematician's Lament

On Jun 23, 7:03 am, mianderson <clay...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 23, 9:49 am, mianderson <clay...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:





On Jun 23, 9:41 am, Jon Enslin <jens...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Jun 23, 8:37 am, "Kyle T. Jones" <KBf...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Jon Enslin wrote:
On Jun 23, 8:24 am, mianderson <clay...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 23, 9:17 am, Jon Enslin <jens...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Jun 23, 7:45 am, Goro <evilnin...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://plato.asu.edu/LockhartsLament.pdf
Summarizes elegantly how i feel about mathematics and mathematics
education at the high school level.  Also is a very insightful
statement about why I hated math in mid/high school and then went on
to absolutely love it in college.  It's a bit on the idealistic side
but really hits home for me.
I thought the section entitled "High School Geometry: Instrument of
the Devil" was interesting.  Just this morning my son started his
summer school geometry class...his third attempt at passing the one
semester of geometry he needs to graduate.  It will be an emotionally
difficult and humiliating process for him.
What is particularly assinine is that the high school requires two
years of math.

I agree - any credible high school should require four years of both
math and science.  Seriously, I think learning math is the most
important subject for young folks - anything else they can catch up on
later (or learn to use Google).

Are you kidding?  Unless you are going to create a bunch of "consumer
math" type courses, you'll be cutting the gradutions rates down by
half with that.

I took math through Calculus, but haven't needed to use anything
beyond basic algebra since I graduated college.

college prep and honors students should really be required to do 4
years of math. If they can't handle that they shouldn't be in college
prep or honors.

vocational students I don't think should have to.  They should have to
take maybe a pre-algebra type course and then a few "life skills" math
type of classes.....

let me expand on this a little bit.....

to the extent that we do have problems in some high school math
classes, it's 95% the parents fault.  That's because they make sure
their below average intellect kidd(who's usually lazy too) enrolls in
precal or cal.  So even though the teacher is well qualified, maybe
10-12 of the 25 kids in the class simply SHOULD NOT BE there, and
since you can hardly fail almost half of a high school class,
unfortunately it has to be "dumbed down"....this is not the fault of
the school- this is the fault of parents who don't seem to understand
their kid is a dumbass.

This is not untrue. When i taught math (in Augusta, actually), at the
end of the year, if a student wanted to take an honor's level course,
they were required to get a signature from their previous math
teacher. Two girls who had struggled in my geometry class, asked to
take Honors Alg II. I declined to sign. They ended up taking the
class anyway (!?); did not do great in that class.

-goro-
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: A Mathematicians Lament
    ... Summarizes elegantly how i feel about mathematics and mathematics ... What is particularly assinine is that the high school requires two ... years of math. ... more for some types of programming than others. ...
    (rec.sport.football.college)
  • Re: A Mathematicians Lament
    ... Summarizes elegantly how i feel about mathematics and ... What is particularly assinine is that the high school ... math type of classes..... ... it's 95% the parents fault. ...
    (rec.sport.football.college)
  • Re: Introductory inspiring math books
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  • Re: A Mathematicians Lament
    ... Summarizes elegantly how i feel about mathematics and mathematics ... What is particularly assinine is that the high school requires two ... years of math. ... more for some types of programming than others. ...
    (rec.sport.football.college)
  • Re: A Mathematicians Lament
    ... Summarizes elegantly how i feel about mathematics and mathematics ... What is particularly assinine is that the high school requires two ... years of math. ... more for some types of programming than others. ...
    (rec.sport.football.college)