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There was a time when a good Liberal Arts education included Calculus because it was considered one of the great achievements of Western Civilization. The arti

There was a time when a good Liberal Arts education included Calculus because it was considered one of the great achievements of Western Civilization. The article says, "Their thinking has led to initiatives like Community College Pathways, which strays away from abstract algebra to engage students in real-world math applications." My interpretation of this is that the article authors are math illiterate enough not to know that "abstract algebra" is thing. How sad to think that some people think that community college intermediate algebra is so abstract that people can't get it.

tnecniv 9y ago
> How sad to think that some people think that community college intermediate algebra is so abstract that people can't get it. I agree, but I don't think more motivation is a bad thing. I hated math (even as an engineer) despite being good at it until I was a junior in college. I got interested in high-level math when I saw what some PhD students were doing for research and that inspired me to dig deeper. Now I appreciate math just for the beauty of it. I wish I had this appreciation in high school, but some people just need a good answer for "why?"