Jo, I did not take offense to anything you said. You were very clear in
your writing that you were not trying to attack me as a teacher but were
speaking of the way our educational system works for math. If I sound
frustrated (more like defensive!) it is not with my students, believe me.
It is with the utter futility of teaching algebra topics to students who
are just NOT going to get it at this time (never say never) and would be
far better served with math they can actually use. Going over for the nth
time that 2 to the 3rd power is a different thing than 2X3 when a kid
doesn't have the basic number sense to find 1/3 on a number line is pretty
pointless, imo.

While I agree with most of what you have written, we are apart on the
details of the problem. You wrote:
> I also agree that not all students will be capable of AP Calculus by
> their senior year, but there is a good percentage that can't get
> through Algebra and Geometery. Typically, these kids have struggled
> from the start trying to learn math the way it is taught.

I disagree that the reason this percentage that can't get through Alg and
Geom is because they weren't taught properly. Sure, some were not. But
many many were taught by trained teachers well versed in alternate
learning styles that still struggle. In the "old days" kids with low math
ability were not expected to get through Algebra 2 but now everybody is.
When I graduated from high school in the late 70s there were 20 kids in my
senior Calc class out of 450 kids. All who lasted did very well, else
they dropped the course. Where I teach today about 50 kids out of 250
will take some level of calc before they graduate and I would venture a
bet that only a few of those actually master the material. The rest will
pass on partial credit and the fact that the teacher will have to "dumb
down" the course in order not to fail most. How is it possible that human
math ability has evolved so much in the last few decades that kids today
can learn the higher math that is expected of them?

Hmmm-- do I have a point in all of this?

I believe that today's elementary and middle school teachers are BETTER
trained to deal with the full range of math learners than those of
yesteryear. When a h.s. student is struggling with something as basic as
PEMDAS, evaluating a number raised to a power, graphing a fraction on a
numberline (all real examples for me and I taught only jrs and srs) it is
likely NOT because they weren't taught correctly. If they are trying and
cannot understand it is because they are either not developmentally ready,
or of low math ability. This isn't an indictment of their worth as a
person, just something we have to face. Some of my low math kids have
talents I can only dream of!

Share This Post | Report This Post

Next Post >>

Posts on this thread, including this one