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I forget where you're from, but I know you're a little older than me. In my public school, 8th grade tracked some students into high-school math (New York Rege
by projektfu 3y ago
I forget where you're from, but I know you're a little older than me. In my public school, 8th grade tracked some students into high-school math (New York Regents Course 1) and the others into math that they'd need for the next year. But in 7th grade, all students were solving some algebra problems, graphing and plotting, etc. basic geometry, some constructions, etc. 11th grade (Regents, not Honors) Chemistry had equilibrium problems, etc., although it was hit or miss whether the teacher could teach them. It was also not required, as only 2 years of science were required, and most students would have taken Earth Science/Geology and Biology. However, it shows that public schools can get teach it, and the standards can require it.
I do wish people would give up on teaching Physics without Calculus. Kind of a wasted year for me, and everything made sense as soon as you added differentiation and integration. I think the two courses should be taught together in the same class.
Presumably, the No Child Left Behind act and the Common Core curriculum are supposed to provide a baseline for the country that is well above "times tables in 8th grade". Common Core seems to me to suffer from a second-system effect, eschewing some of the tried-and-true for the experimental, but the motivation is a reasonable one. I never understood why they didn't take a successful state's curriculum and adapt it to all the states, but that's politics more than anything else. I'm pretty concerned though, now that I'll be having kids go through the system, that the parties involved (teachers, administration, politicians) will conspire to avoid doing work while avoiding responsibility. But that's local politics, not national.
- WalterBright 3y agoCalculus had this fearsome reputation in high school of being terribly difficult. When I finally learned the basics of it (in college) I thought "is that all?" Of course, it wasn't all at all, but the calculus needed for high school physics is pretty simple. I took every honors class in high school. Everything they had. I was terribly, woefully underprepared for college. It took a year and a half before I had my legs back under me. It was a wonder I didn't flunk out. But I had a great time in high school. I had little responsibilities, a little money, and lots of friends to hang with.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoFor certain kids, HS is pretty easy academically, even if you play it on hard mode. It comes as a huge shock when hitting university in how hard things can get, and how you weren't really being challenged with homework you could do in class the period before it was due. Washington state has the option for kids to take some college courses in HS. I hope my kid can take advantage of that (but he just graduated from Kindergarten, so we are a ways off from determining anything).
- WalterBright 3y agoYou can teach basic calculus to high school students in a couple hours, if they have a solid understanding of algebra.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoYa. And it really isn't that hard if you have a solid understanding of algebra. Linear algebra on the other hand...I wish I started earlier on that so I could really get all the cool stuff happening in ML today.
- kccqzy 3y agoThere's plenty of physics you can teach without calculus. I wish the curriculum here wouldn't start with kinematics. When I did physics without calculus, I was taught forces, force diagrams, torque, pulley systems, buoyancy, work and energy, and some basic electric circuits (including Kirchhoff's Rules). The only bit of kinematic was motion with constant velocity, which doesn't need any calculus.