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> What the members of the mathematical community—especially those in the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathe

> What the members of the mathematical community—especially those in the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)—have known for a long time is that the pump that is pushing more students into more advanced mathematics ever earlier is not just ineffective: It is counter-productive. Too many students are moving too fast through preliminary courses so that they can get calculus onto their high school transcripts. The result is that even if they are able to pass high school calculus, they have established an inadequate foundation on which to build the mathematical knowledge required for a STEM career. https://www.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/Standards_and_Positions/Position_Statements/MAA_NCTM_background.pdf https://www.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/Standards_and_Positions/P...

Aromasin 4y ago
God can I relate with this. My college/high-school experience of Calculus was miserable. It was built on already shaky Math foundations, so I simply did not understand it at the time. I did enough past papers to memorize the sequence needed to solve the questions in the format they gave it in, and squeaked by with a B or a C iirc. It was never explained to me why I would ever need Calculus, other than to pass my Math exams so I could go to University and get a good job. All this study; 0 context. Lo and behold, I went to university to study electrical engineering. I needed it for everything, from differentiator circuits, to digital signal processing, to current flows. Limits, derivatives, and integrals are the backbone of EE. My foundational knowledge of Calculus was non-existent. We glossed over it on my course because the assumption is that most everyone knew it because it's part of the College curriculum. I had to go through hell and back at university, doing my coursework while simultaneously catching up on all of the mathematics I had failed to grasp in my college days. I would have been much better served by solidifying my Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry. Better yet, do a pre-Calc (not really a thing in the UK afaik) course containing 101 real life examples of where this might be useful.

Aromasin 4y ago

God can I relate with this. My college/high-school experience of Calculus was miserable. It was built on already shaky Math foundations, so I simply did not understand it at the time. I did enough past papers to memorize the sequence needed to solve the questions in the format they gave it in, and squeaked by with a B or a C iirc. It was never explained to me why I would ever need Calculus, other than to pass my Math exams so I could go to University and get a good job. All this study; 0 context. Lo and behold, I went to university to study electrical engineering. I needed it for everything, from differentiator circuits, to digital signal processing, to current flows. Limits, derivatives, and integrals are the backbone of EE. My foundational knowledge of Calculus was non-existent. We glossed over it on my course because the assumption is that most everyone knew it because it's part of the College curriculum. I had to go through hell and back at university, doing my coursework while simultaneously catching up on all of the mathematics I had failed to grasp in my college days. I would have been much better served by solidifying my Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry. Better yet, do a pre-Calc (not really a thing in the UK afaik) course containing 101 real life examples of where this might be useful.