The debate over standards in high school math has been going on for a very long time, but things seemed to come to a pretty nasty head last year when the New York Times ran the article Is Algebra Necessary?
Background Material
Bloggers and educators were outraged on both sides and started throwing mud. In the most recent issue of Harper’s (Sept 2013), Nicholson Baker wrote an essay basically reiterating the arguments from the NYT’s piece and responding to some of the criticisms.
I’ve been trying to stay out of this because I honestly have no idea what high school is designed to do.
The real argument here doesn’t seem to be whether or not algebra is “useful in the real world,” but rather about whether or not we should force students to learn things in high school that they are not interested in.
I see a few possibilities for the purpose of high school:
- To teach students the basics in a broad range of topics so that they have some fundamental skills that will allow them to choose a career from there.
- To allow students to learn topics that are of interest to them.
- Something else?
I don’t know the real purpose, and it is impossible to participate in this debate without clearly defining first what you think the purpose of making students go to high school is.
Of course, the arguments are muddied by the fact that no one actually defines this first.
Baker’s Case Against Algebra
Here is Baker’s main argument in a nutshell. He is a fantastic writer, so you should read the full thing yourself if this interests you.
Algebra (II) is unnecessary for most people, i.e. the 70% of the population that do not go into a STEM field. It causes excessive stress and failure for basically no reason.
Why not just have some survey course in ninth grade where some great ideas of math throughout history are presented and then have all future math courses be electives?
Note that English, foreign languages, history, and all other subjects taught in high school are also not directly applicable to most people’s daily lives. I assume this means that basically you’ll do ninth grade as a taste of what the subjects are about through survey courses, and then literally everything is an elective afterward.
Honestly, I agree with Baker that this would probably make high school a lot more enjoyable and useful for everyone.
A lot more learning would take place as well. It just boils back down to what you think the purpose of high school should be, and since I don’t know, I can’t say whether or not this is what should be done.
Counters to Baker
Here are two thoughts I had that don’t seem to be raised in the main discussion.
Point 1:
How do you know whether or not taking algebra will be useful to you?
Having core standards in some sense protects the high school student who isn’t equipped to make this type of decision from making a really bad decision.
I’ll just give an anecdote about my own experience as someone who really loved all forms of learning and went into math and who still made a really bad decision when given a choice of electives.
When I was going into my senior year of high school, I knew I wanted to be a composer. I knew this so confidently that despite being advised against it, I decided to not take physics since it was an elective.
My reasoning was that I would never, ever need it for my future career as a composer. Let’s ignore the fact that I didn’t realize that understanding the physics of sound is an extremely important skill for a composer to have and so made a poor decision for that reason.
Let’s assume that physics really was useless for my intended career.
After my first year of undergrad, I switched to a math major. I really regretted not taking physics at that point and ended up loving physics in college so much that I minored in it.
Here’s the point.
Almost no one in high school knows what they are going to do. So how in the world are they going to know if algebra is necessary for their career?
Even if they know what they are going to do, they could still end up mistakenly thinking that it is unnecessary.
My guess is that if we switch to a system where practically everything is an elective, then when people get to college and their interests change they won’t have the basic skills to succeed.
They’ll have to fill in this lacking knowledge on their own because math departments definitely cannot offer more remedial classes. We have so many students and classes as it is we can barely find enough people to teach them all.
Point 2:
This seems much ado about nothing.
What I’m about to say might seem harsh, but Algebra II is not that hard. You don’t have to be good at it. You don’t have to like it. But it isn’t a good sign if you can’t, at the very least, pass it.
Baker himself points out that Cardano in the 1500’s was able to do this stuff. Since then we’ve come up with much easier and better ways to think about it.
The abstraction level is just not that high. We’re not talking about quantum mechanics or something. Students in other cultures don’t seem to struggle in the same way, and I don’t think we’re inherently dumber or anything.
Depending on where you look, 30%-50% of students fail Algebra II. Let’s say it is closer to 30% because a large number of this statistic does not take into account that there are lazy/rebellious/apathetic/whatever students who can easily handle the abstraction, but just don’t put any work in and fail for that reason.
I’d imagine the number of people who try really hard and still fail is pretty low (maybe 20% or less? I’m just making stuff up at this point, but probably way less if you count people who never pass it).
Is it too insensitive and politically incorrect for me to say that someone who can’t handle this level of abstraction probably isn’t cut out for college in any subject?
Is college for everyone?
I can’t remember what the proper response is to this anymore. What if the number who never pass is around 5%? Is saying this 5% isn’t cut out for college still too much? Sure, give them a high school diploma if they can’t do it, but college may not be the best fit. It seems a good litmus test.
The Real Counter to Baker
What major won’t require abstraction at least at the level of algebra II? STEM is out.
English? Definitely out, unless you somehow avoid all literary theory.
Business? Most business degrees require some form of calculus.
Music? I hope you can somehow get out of your post-tonal theory classes.
History? There has been a recent surge of Bayesian methods in historical methods.
I guess the point is that if a high school diploma is meant to indicate some level of readiness for college, then algebra is probably a good indicator. This does not mean that you will use it, but will just point out that you have some ability to do some abstract things.
I’m not saying it is the only way to test this, but it is probably a pretty good one.
Again, if a high school diploma isn’t meant to indicate readiness for college, then who cares what you do?
*Cringes and waits for backlash*
