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Virginia not moving to eliminate advanced math classes
- throwvaedu 6y agoBased on the way the article was written, I can only infer that this ridiculous proposal was actually on the table at one point, and after sufficient pushback, the press narrative had to be that it was always going to be this way all along. People don't make fuss over things in a vacuum. I had a public school education, and the most advanced mathematics courses my high school offered were underwhelming. I started teaching myself linear algebra and multivariate calculus on my own to quench my boredom. Yes, get rid of advanced mathematics courses all together in the name of equity and not hurting someone's feelings, see what that does to American STEM competitiveness on the world stage... Do you think Asian countries would ever even consider doing something remotely like this?
- jfengel 6y agoOn social media, people do make fuss over things in a vacuum. This started life as a cranky school board member, who posted to social media, and was picked up as news by Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-accelerated-math-courses-equity https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-accelerated-math-courses... There are organizations trying to end "tracking", which ends up teaching a lot of students math they don't need. There's no point in tracking a student toward calculus but they graduate at Algebra II, which offers nothing useful except as a step to calculus (or maybe abstract algebra). It's one aspect of the current system which seriously screws up a lot of things, and there are a bunch of reform efforts. None of that was in the actual plan, but there are factions that benefit from stirring up fuss.