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Math courses don't add up
Ohanian Comment; Thank you, Richard Cohen. I hope Gabriela reads this. I hope many many people read this. I wish it could be tattooed on the bellies of a few hundred corporate politicos.
This is one great column.
by Richard Cohen
I am haunted by Gabriela Ocampo.
Last year, she dropped out of the 12th grade at Birmingham High School in Los Angeles after failing algebra six times in six semesters, trying it a seventh time and finally just despairing over ever getting it. So, according to the Los Angeles Times, she "gathered her textbooks, dropped them at the campus book room and, without telling a soul, vanished from Birmingham High School."
Gabriela, this is Richard: There's life after algebra.
In truth, I don't know what to tell Gabriela. The L.A. school district requires students to pass a year of algebra and a year of geometry in order to graduate. This is something recent for Los Angeles (although 17 states require it) and it is the sort of vaunted education reform that is supposed to close the science and math gap and make the U.S. more competitive. All it seems to do, though, is ruin the lives of countless kids. In L.A., more kids drop out because of algebra than any other subject.
I confess to being one of those people who hate math. I flunked algebra, barely passed it the second time, somehow passed geometry and resolved that I would never go near math again. I let others go on to intermediate algebra and trigonometry while I learned to type. In due course, this came to be the way I made my living.
Here's the thing, Gabriela: You will never need to know algebra. I have never once used it and never once even rued that I could not use it. You will never need to know - never mind want to know - how many boys it will take to mow a lawn if one of them quits halfway and two more show up later - or something like that. Most math can now be done by a computer or a calculator. On the other hand, no computer can write a column or even a thank-you note - or reason even a little bit. If the school asked you for another year of English or, God forbid, history, so that you actually had to know something about your world, I would be on its side. But algebra? Please.
Gabriela, someone's probably told you that algebra teaches reasoning. This is a lie propagated by, among others, algebra teachers. Writing is the highest form of reasoning. This is a fact. Algebra is not.
I am not anti-algebra. It has its uses, I suppose, and it should be available for people who want to take it, but it should not be a requirement for graduation.
Almost 20 years ago, I wrote a similar column about algebra. Math teachers struck back with a vengeance. They made so many claims for algebra's intrinsic worth that I felt, as I once had in class, like a dummy. Still, in the two decades since, I have lived a pretty full life and never, ever used - or wanted to use - algebra. I was lucky, though. I had graduated from high school and gone on to college. It's different for you, Gabriela. Algebra ruined many a day for me. Now it could ruin your life.
Richard Cohen, a syndicated columnist for the Washinton Post
— Richard Cohen
New York Daily News
2006-02-16
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
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