The "Is Algebra Necessary?" dude is back

[pokerfan]

with an op-ed in the NYT promoting his new book...

Calculus and higher math have a place, of course, but it’s not in most people’s everyday lives. What citizens do need is to be comfortable reading graphs and charts and adept at calculating simple figures in their heads. Ours has become a quantitative century, and we must master its language. Decimals and ratios are now as crucial as nouns and verbs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/opinion/sunday/the-wrong-way-to-teach-math.html

A rebuttal:

Before I dive into Hacker’s new book, you would be advised to refresh your memory of the case he presented in that article, since his book is essentially an extension of what he said then, expanded to cover the entire Common Core Mathematical Standards. Prior to writing this review, I wrote an article for the Huffington Post in which I summarized, with my commentary, his 2012 article, together with a recent interview he gave to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

http://devlinsangle.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-math-myth-that-permeates-math-myth.html

And lastly, a link to the previous "Is Algebra Necessary" discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/11242898

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. The irony is that blue collar workers use advanced math more often than others.

http://www.livescience.com/29017-which-jobs-actually-use-math.html

Of course the average writer thinks algebra is irrelevant.

[pokerfan]

3. Absolutely

I know a lot of machinists who use algebra on a a daily basis.

[X_Digger]

7. Carpenters use geometry, trig & algebra.

Rise/run for rafters, many calculations with pi for round plans, and the Pythagorean theorem all the time.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

2. 82% can't calculate the cost of carpet?

For real? I'm not sure I believe this. Most people I know can do this and they are not engineers or scientists. They are just people who need to compute how much things cost in order to save money.

[X_Digger]

6. In their head, maybe? I'd need more detail before I'd swallow this one. n/t

[MineralMan]

4. For the dude:

Your parking meter says you have 28 minutes left. What time do you need to start back to your car to avoid that $50 parking ticket?

Algebra, dude.

[msongs]

5. going metric we could get rid of fractions and all that time wasted dividing/multiplying them n

[Wednesdays]

9. Amen to that.

We've been using an obsolete system for far too long...simply because it's more profitable for TPTB.

[Nevernose]

8. I agree with him

The reason the American educational system is the way it is is because Anericans are huge believers in "because we've always done it that way" and will come to any rationalization to defend that paradigm.

Algebra II is mostly useless after high school. Algebra I and Geometry are vital. A high school graduate does not need to know calculus; if he gets a job calculating rocket flight paths he'll probably have a college degree.

I think advanced math should be offered, but the mainstream replacement should be Statistics and some version of "Life Math." We have the real world math class at the high school I teach at, in which seniors get to use their math skills for practicing things like amortization and stocks and stuff like that, and it's hugely popular.

Then again, I'm a "burn it all down and start from scratch" psycho-hippy teacher, so only other lunatics listen to me anyway