3 ms·
I think many of the commenters posting that this step will necessarily lower mathematical achievement are unlikely to have taught math to small children (or at
by Hermitian909 5y ago
I think many of the commenters posting that this step will necessarily lower mathematical achievement are unlikely to have taught math to small children (or at least to a large number of them). The change has tradeoffs, but I think we'll likely end up a more numerate state for the change.
It's important to remember that children are not tiny adults. At an early enough developmental stage, a child may be physically unable to learn algebra. The number of such children is much higher in middle school than freshman year of high school. Note that developing later doesn't mean you're not very smart nor that you have aptitude. A student I had many years with this issue now has his PhD in mathematics.
By delaying algebra, you give a large chunk of students time to move forward developmentally so they can engage in the material. The current system ill suits them for a few reasons. One is that curriculum (somewhat necessarily) assumes high mastery of pre-requisite concepts, when it turns out this isn't the case students tend to not understand the material and get very frustrated. That frustration and anger often causes lasting damage that may never be undone.
My mother was a math educator during the years when Algebra first moved into middle school fought heavily against it. According to her the push came mainly from professors of Mathematics (with no educational training) who wanted better trained students. I think this has worked out for some of the top schools. If you're smart and a little precocious algebra in 8th grade is good, but I think net we lose out on a lot of talent.
- threatofrain 5y agoUnder the Common Core as specifically implemented in California, children who are ready for Algebra in middle school may take it, and children who benefit from a delay may opt for delay. A central pillar of Equitable Math is that this disparity sustains White Supremacy in math, and thus all children should always be in the same class, up until the last year of high school.¹ This is the central point of contention, and not whether some children benefit from a delay of Algebra past middle school, and nor whether all children ought to learn Calculus. [1]: https://equitablemath.org https://equitablemath.org
- Hermitian909 5y ago> A central pillar of Equitable Math is that this disparity sustains White Supremacy in math, and thus all children should always be in the same class, up until the last year of high school. Could you cite a more direct source for this? It's in direct contradiction with the materials the site you linked provided me [0]. If you go to page 17 "September Who are my students?" they do not discourage different classes or tracks existing, they discourage placing students in different tracks without input from the student or their parents. As a former educator that seems sensible to me. Sometimes a student isn't quite ready to enter the more advanced mathematical track but could be made so with if provided some guidance on how to self study. I've seen many high school freshman apply themselves more readily when I laid out the long term consequences of different math tracks. [0] https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/1_STRIDE1.pdf https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11...