It is perhaps a sad necessity that Rhode Island does not require high
school students to pass Algebra II in order to graduate. I was once
asked to tutor a friend's kid in Algebra I . She was a bright normal 17
year old but " dense " in math. But self esteem is more than a joke.
After it became clear to me that she was way behind in this
accumulative subject I advised her to drop it. She did and she did
graduate.
But we face a science literacy crisis in this country . Read Carl Sagan's " Demon Haunted World ".. Sagan pointed out that one obstacle to science literacy is general illiteracy-observed even in high school graduates.
And yet Algebra I and II are the Chinese Wall separating average kids from a fundamental understanding of elementary science. The very language of high school physics is general Algebra. Some of those simple motion formulas are explained only by basic Calculus.
In order for so many kids not to fall through the cracks of science literacy they need a great deal of INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION. They must not be permitted to fall way behind in these demanding accumulative subjects.
More money needed or just more dedication ?
There is often a magic moment of self-confidence restored. One of my Proustian Algebra I memories : One day-on my own - I suddenly grasped the logic of the distributive law as described in the F-O-I-L method of factoring trinomials : for example ( x+1 ) ( x +1) = x( squared) +2x +1 .
Well that was just a FIRST YEAR ALGEBRA conundrum. In Algebra II I encountered ( introduction to calculus chapter ) the most awesome equation that is relevant to human life : the exponential growth formula- which shows why at the present rate of population growth the world's population can double every 35 years. No wonder Isaac Asimov was paranoid about this " Choice of Catastrophes " .
Higher math can radicalize you, I swear ! Somewhere in Marx's " Kapital" there is an algebraic formula for the rate of exploitation of the working class.
And there are limits to growth even of Almighty Kapital.
But higher math does NOT lead to atheism. Einstein thought that God was a master geometrician. And Euclid was His first prophet. New Atheists take note.
But we face a science literacy crisis in this country . Read Carl Sagan's " Demon Haunted World ".. Sagan pointed out that one obstacle to science literacy is general illiteracy-observed even in high school graduates.
And yet Algebra I and II are the Chinese Wall separating average kids from a fundamental understanding of elementary science. The very language of high school physics is general Algebra. Some of those simple motion formulas are explained only by basic Calculus.
In order for so many kids not to fall through the cracks of science literacy they need a great deal of INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION. They must not be permitted to fall way behind in these demanding accumulative subjects.
More money needed or just more dedication ?
There is often a magic moment of self-confidence restored. One of my Proustian Algebra I memories : One day-on my own - I suddenly grasped the logic of the distributive law as described in the F-O-I-L method of factoring trinomials : for example ( x+1 ) ( x +1) = x( squared) +2x +1 .
Well that was just a FIRST YEAR ALGEBRA conundrum. In Algebra II I encountered ( introduction to calculus chapter ) the most awesome equation that is relevant to human life : the exponential growth formula- which shows why at the present rate of population growth the world's population can double every 35 years. No wonder Isaac Asimov was paranoid about this " Choice of Catastrophes " .
Higher math can radicalize you, I swear ! Somewhere in Marx's " Kapital" there is an algebraic formula for the rate of exploitation of the working class.
And there are limits to growth even of Almighty Kapital.
But higher math does NOT lead to atheism. Einstein thought that God was a master geometrician. And Euclid was His first prophet. New Atheists take note.
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Ron