STEM Fever
Sent to the Wall Street Journal, Jan. 3
Sandra Stotsky thinks that the "Common Core Doesn't Add UP to STEM Success" (Jan 3) and that all high school students should be required to take trigonometry and precalculus to be ready for the brave new world of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
Even if the STEM crisis were real, this is not a good idea. Of course, advanced math classes should be offered, but there is no reason to require them of everybody: Michael Handel of Northeastern University has concluded that only about 10% of the work force uses math beyond algebra II.
Also, it is not clear that the crisis is real. It is not clear that there is a compelling need for more