Fixing Math Education in America

[bluefrog]

LINK

For instance, how often do most adults encounter a situation in which they need to solve a quadratic equation? Do they need to know what constitutes a “group of transformations” or a “complex number”? Of course professional mathematicians, physicists and engineers need to know all this, but most citizens would be better served by studying how mortgages are priced, how computers are programmed and how the statistical results of a medical trial are to be understood.

Imagine replacing the sequence of algebra, geometry and calculus with a sequence of finance, data and basic engineering. In the finance course, students would learn the exponential function, use formulas in spreadsheets and study the budgets of people, companies and governments. In the data course, students would gather their own data sets and learn how, in fields as diverse as sports and medicine, larger samples give better estimates of averages. In the basic engineering course, students would learn the workings of engines, sound waves, TV signals and computers. Science and math were originally discovered together, and they are best learned together now.

Traditionalists will object that the standard curriculum teaches valuable abstract reasoning, even if the specific skills acquired are not immediately useful in later life. A generation ago, traditionalists were also arguing that studying Latin, though it had no practical application, helped students develop unique linguistic skills. We believe that studying applied math, like learning living languages, provides both useable knowledge and abstract skills.

What math skills do people need today? Like the author mentions it's hard to impress the importance of learning something like imaginary numbers to a 16 year old kid.

Context and application are crucial. Kids have to see the relevance of something before they internalize it. I think a mix of pure/applied math is best, with an emphasis on applied.

Honestly kids aren't going to use most of what they learn in Algebra 2, Pre-Calc or Trig. Many school systems in Europe and Asia have a specialized education tracks for high school students going on to science and engineering programs in college. Leave the advanced math to these students and make finance, statistics and basic geometry the focus of math education for the rest.

 

[SheedSoNasty]

I couldn't agree more on this. Schools really need to place more of a focus on applicable education that is meaningful.

 

[jlprk]

They also need to get rid of science fiction movies. There used to be hardly any and now they're everywhere. That stuff won't happen in our lifetimes, if ever.

 

[Mediocre Man]

I also agree with this. My daughters school is pretty nice because it actually has an engineering course as an elective. It's nice to see kids getting the opportunity to explore their scholastic interests.

 

[dpc]

I was jsut talking to one of my past math teachers the other day, and she said that she now starts every semester by telling her students "you will never ever use this again. If I didn't have to teach you it, I wouldn't know how to do it".

I have math at 1:00. We are learning crap I will never use in my field.

 

[Paxil]

Part of math education is to provide paths to higher education. Sure some of it is not applicable to certain people (especially people that choose not to go to college). Perhaps you could allow different paths... but it is a bit dangerous to start to limit your options later in life in HS. I think I wanted to be a forest ranger in HS... then journalism in college... but I ended up a software engineer.

That being said there are certain life skills they do not teach in HS that I wish they would have... more focus in how our government works, finance, investing etc... would have been useful to me, but I don't think limiting education to only the lowest common denominator (look I am using math lingo ) would be dangerous. I know if my son had a choice he would avoid all difficult courses thinking he is going to land a job testing video games for a living. =)

I think we constantly need to look at what we are doing with education though. The world is changing... our access to information is so much higher now than 10 years ago, that we need more emphasis on how to apply knowledge than the trying to fill every mind with the same knowledge. More emphasis on logic, project management etc... that is useful regardless of what path you choose.

I was surprised my son started algebra at age 11, geometry at 12 and calculus at 13. I think I started those in HS myself. Times change.

 

[donkiez]

Add personal finance and bugeting to that and Im all for it. Problem is that it will never happen because there is way to much money to be made by keeping people stupid.

Traditional math should still be offered though.

 

[Denny Crane]

Education needs two tracks. Advanced academic studies for those students who want to go to college, and technical training classes for those who don't. By technical training, I mean classes that teach skills like auto mechanics, welding, cooking, etc.

 

[maxiep]

Great post Bluefrog. Repped. Denny, you also make a terrific point.

Mathematics in school is used by teachers much like the training Miyagi did for Daniel-san in "The Karate Kid". Wax on, wax off; paint the fence; sand the deck; etc. It's all about pattern recognition, which is the same part of the brain that absorbs grammar in the English and foreign languages and music.

We train every child like they're going to college; it's a huge mistake. Mathematics needs to be more about the basics (and much more intensely taught) at the elementary and middle school level. At the high school level, they need to be split into a few different tracks; engineering and liberal arts and trade-focused. Everyone should be required to take a finance/mathematic life skills class. Not possessing an understanding of the time value of money is a real disadvantage when it comes to succeeding in life and leaves young adults susceptible to scams.

 

[jlprk]

They have dumbed it down so they can teach it earlier. I was impressed that my son was taking Geometry in 9th grade (like I did 40 years earlier, the only one in the school) till I mentioned proofs to the teacher. He said that they don't teach proofs now. I was shocked. Proofs were half of the whole Geometry course in my day. You used axioms to prove theorems. It's all dumbed down now.

My high school was all about vocational tracks--you mean they changed that too? Don't half the students still take shop and home ec all day? Don't they still have 3 groups--the hard guys, the soc's (pronounced soshes, from the word social), and the A-students (renamed nerds in the 70s)?

The new practical skill they should teach is how to be submissive to China. Everyone should learn Chinese language and culture. School lunches should only be Chinese food. 1st graders should learn how to use chopsticks. Shop is now a waste of time ever since Reagan ruined the trade deficit by exporting our manufacturing base.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Education needs two tracks. Advanced academic studies for those students who want to go to college, and technical training classes for those who don't. By technical training, I mean classes that teach skills like auto mechanics, welding, cooking, etc.

There is no way that school districts have the funds to purchase the equipment to teach vocational education using today's accepted technology.

 

[jlprk]

Schools have never used current technology, except when Apple donated computers. Back in my day Shop classes didn't have laser cutters or even electric saws. Stone axes worked just fine. Topless Home Ec slaves pounded the wheatstalks into flour with a dull rock. If it was good enough for us, it's good enough for you little mental dwarfs.

 

[huevonkiller]

They have dumbed it down so they can teach it earlier. I was impressed that my son was taking Geometry in 9th grade (like I did 40 years earlier, the only one in the school) till I mentioned proofs to the teacher. He said that they don't teach proofs now. I was shocked. Proofs were half of the whole Geometry course in my day. You used axioms to prove theorems. It's all dumbed down now.

My high school was all about vocational tracks--you mean they changed that too? Don't half the students still take shop and home ec all day? Don't they still have 3 groups--the hard guys, the soc's (pronounced soshes, from the word social), and the A-students (renamed nerds in the 70s)?

The new practical skill they should teach is how to be submissive to China. Everyone should learn Chinese language and culture. School lunches should only be Chinese food. 1st graders should learn how to use chopsticks. Shop is now a waste of time ever since Reagan ruined the trade deficit by exporting our manufacturing base.

China insists on propping up State-owned enterprises, and spending their country into hell. Eventually that kind of socialism/communism will catch up to them.

 

[julius]

I, along with probably 95% of the math students out there who weren't great at math, wondered that when I was in high school. I kept saying we should've been taught how to balance a budget, do our checkbooks, figure out what interest rates are best, credit card issues (i.e., "if you don't pay x, you owe X+y%, etc).

But instead, I learned how much sand can go into a clear pyramid and other stuff that since I left high school (and college) I have never used once in my life.

I wanted to do woodwork, not math work. Teach me how to use the metric system, or make a miter cut or bow tie wood joint. Norm Abram should've been my teacher, not Nerdy McNerdstein.

 

[Denny Crane]

There is no way that school districts have the funds to purchase the equipment to teach vocational education using today's accepted technology.

http://lanetech.org/index.php

 

[jlprk]

There is no way that school districts have the funds to purchase the equipment to teach vocational education using today's accepted technology.

He's talking about $1 million CAM laser saws (I just made that up) that factories have. But as I said, school shop always had technology more primitive than whatever the high tech was, current to that time. The idea was to teach basic skills, not how to use the most current machines.

The cause of all this is that America has gone too white. We need to return to the good old days when Mexicans and blacks ruled. Nowadays every school has its nose up the air and expects all its graduates to go to college. Conservatives have finally come around to believing in a Marxist revolution. Our thoughts should be centered upon how to energize the blue collars.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

I also agree with this. My daughters school is pretty nice because it actually has an engineering course as an elective. It's nice to see kids getting the opportunity to explore their scholastic interests.

Nice, indeed. Also, another reason to have math.