ALGEBRAIC QUESTION

ALGEBRAIC QUESTION

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Psalm [MKJV] 119:103-105 How sweet are Your Words to my taste! More than honey to my mouth! Through Your Commandments I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.

1Peter 1:24-25 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of men as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls out, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the Word preached as gospel to you.

  Added reading yet another news article on educators division over as to whether algebra should be subtracted from school curriculums or not. This along with receiving multiplied Facebook postings of “I lived another day without using algebra.” from diverse group of people employed and not employed.

  The Omaha World-Herald article presented some easily understood math to sum up the issue. One out of five young Americans doesn’t graduate high school “This is one of the worst records in the developed world. Why? The chief academic reason is they failed ninth-grade algebra,” says Andrew Hacker, professor emeritus at Queens College, author of “The Math Myth and Other STEM Delusions.” Hacker also lays claim to only 5% of jobs require using algebra or complex math. Hacker doesn’t stand alone, numerous others are desiring that algebra be subtracted from mandatory to elective curriculum.

  In 43 years of mostly working in machine shops, 25 of which in a senior lead responsibility, building and renovating a few houses on the side, plus other occupation and vocation requiring math skills, I never once used algebra, nor did the machinist coworkers. The engineers did. My father, though not required in his employment or business, did so because “It’s fun. It stimulates the mind!” This happy father standing in minority among multitude including family and friends declaring it numbed theirs.  For entertainment Dad also mentally tallied purchases and told the cashier the full amount before they hit the Total key. (It’s a wonder that baffled by high school algebra combined with observing Dad’s grocery store performances hasn’t put me on some psychologist’s couch to deal with dismal self-esteem.)

  Will removal of algebra from required curriculum be mandated? Who knows?

  I pretend not to be a prophet, but do predict that there is, will continue to be, more of a fight to keep algebra than there was to keep the Bible in school. And why wouldn’t this be true? The same enlightened academia adds up what they see as society’s crucial needs . . . and make what they think are the final decisions.

EBB4