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I would NEVER put calculus into required curriculum. Calculus is far less important than some simple number theory, logic, and the ability to think about abstra

by jmilloy 16y ago

I would NEVER put calculus into required curriculum. Calculus is far less important than some simple number theory, logic, and the ability to think about abstract problems creatively. The tragedy is that we push towards calculus (which is really just advanced arithmetic until you get to, say college, real analysis) at the expense of these other skills.

HelloBeautiful 16y ago
IMHO you don't understand Calculus good enough yourself. It's one of the most powerful tools humankind has come with. A couple of simple ideas aplicable practically everywhere.
Jach 16y ago
While agreeing with the sister-child I'll also say that yes, other math and thinking skills are also important, but there's no reason we can't have those and calculus too. Throw out some of the more useless things like PE, get rid of certain requirements like art, maybe take away a year or two of the "read books most of the class doesn't care about and write essays hurriedly read over by the prof to later be never read again" English classes. Even just removing one required semester (half a year) of PE and one required semester of English (which shouldn't be very controversial) frees up two semesters, which for a high school level accommodates Calculus just fine. I'd love to see mathematical analysis courses taught at the high school level too (especially since many grown adults are under the impression math in general is like the algebra they did in high school) but that might be getting ahead of ourselves. I also don't see why you can't teach number theory et al. throughout all the math courses. I never had a formal trigonometry course because it was taught along the way.
- TGJ 16y ago
  While I agree with your overall idea of removing extra classes from high school, you do realize that most graduates need at least 2 more semesters of English? Plus the failure rate of College Algebra is pretty staggering.

by jmilloy 16y ago

HelloBeautiful 16y ago

IMHO you don't understand Calculus good enough yourself. It's one of the most powerful tools humankind has come with. A couple of simple ideas aplicable practically everywhere.

Jach 16y ago

While agreeing with the sister-child I'll also say that yes, other math and thinking skills are also important, but there's no reason we can't have those and calculus too. Throw out some of the more useless things like PE, get rid of certain requirements like art, maybe take away a year or two of the "read books most of the class doesn't care about and write essays hurriedly read over by the prof to later be never read again" English classes. Even just removing one required semester (half a year) of PE and one required semester of English (which shouldn't be very controversial) frees up two semesters, which for a high school level accommodates Calculus just fine. I'd love to see mathematical analysis courses taught at the high school level too (especially since many grown adults are under the impression math in general is like the algebra they did in high school) but that might be getting ahead of ourselves. I also don't see why you can't teach number theory et al. throughout all the math courses. I never had a formal trigonometry course because it was taught along the way.

TGJ 16y ago
While I agree with your overall idea of removing extra classes from high school, you do realize that most graduates need at least 2 more semesters of English? Plus the failure rate of College Algebra is pretty staggering.