A Washington Post columnist, Richard Cohen, opened up a can of worms last week with a column that proposes that high school algebra is useless for most students, and should be dropped as a requirement for everyone.
Bloggers all over the map have jumped on the column. Chad at Uncertain Principles offers a comparison to the difficulties in narrative structure in literature. His comments ring true to me. Besides studying physics, I also have a degree in Comparative Literature.
Rather than comment on the Cohen piece here, I wrote Cohen a personal e-mail and diarized about the issue at The Daily Kos. Check it out.
Your analysis is right on. Rarely is the question asked: is our children learning?
I always loved learning – but hated math for the way it was presented to me in school. It wasn’t until my late twenties that I began to really appreciate math.
I was always better at math in context – geometry is easier for me than algebra, and if I can understand a physics equation verbally, I can usually do the math. Different learning styles for different folks.