Math As A Merit Badge (And Other Comments)
Don’t Drink and Derive
The responses to my last post about math (who said I’m not a math blogger again?) ranged from the plauditory to the super-critical. Here’s a selection of some of my favorite comments to my last piece. First, Michael Doyle sets the record straight:
Algebra II has become a badge, one of many, that pretends to separate middle class white boys from, well, everybody else. You can pass A2 without understanding a whole lot about mathematics, or even numbers, but the vast majority of careers that “require” A2 do not actually require that you actually use it–they just require that you have some kind of certificate saying you passed a course labeled Algebra II.
So if we’re going to talk about math, or schooling as a whole, we need to look at what “merit” means. Perfect. Another from Jeff Branzberg:
The problem with math [instruction] is most math teachers do not make the subject interesting. I do not believe this is their fault, though. Math is perceived (and taught) as a series of techniques and algorithms, with little to no real life connection. Typical
