Algebr No Reasoning Without Algebra

Algebra is not an easy subject for many people. It is full of letters, numbers, and rules mixed together to represent real life problems that are hard to swallow for anyone who doesn’t look at the world from the perspective of a mathematician. In his essay, “Wrong Answer: A Case Against Algebra II”, Nicholson Baker addresses this problem and explains why he thinks Algebra II should not be seen as a staple in the education of High school students.

Algebra is a major mathematical strand that has been incorporated across all year levels within the Victorian Curriculum. The many components within and interrelated with algebra and algebraic thinking sets children up, not only for formal algebra in high school, but for life (Reys, et al., 2012). This paper will be addressing some of the main ideas and understandings associated with Algebra. Key skills, strategies and ways of thinking will also be explored along with strategies for teaching the content effectively.

One reason algebra II should be required is that it prepares students for college. One expert said "Students who take algebra II are more likely to have a full-time job with benefits after graduation and be healthier.”Also, taking away these requirements would leave students unprepared for college and technical school. The article states “the new changes still require algebra II for honors diplomas, or for diploma plans focusing on science, technology, engineering and math courses. Honor diplomas can ensure automatic admission to Texas public universities.” This proves

Disturbingly, “nearly one-fifth of high school students and over 50 percent of middle school students are enrolled in math classes whose teachers neither majored or minored in math” (Drew, 2011, p.9). In 2000, 31 percent of high

Algebra I is a class taken by 9th and 10th grade students as a requirement towards graduation. Because the depth of knowledge required for the course, some of the9th grade students may be required to take Foundations of Algebra in order to acquire some of the necessary skills needed to master the objectives in Algebra I. therefore by the end of their sophomore year, all students will have taken Algebra I.

The general belief around the country (or perhaps even the world) is that math classes will be beneficial to a well rounded student. In some cases, such as the author argued, this might be true as a recent high school graduate who hasn't had the life experiences that someone later in their life might have. The author continues to explain that in their line of previous work and general experience, they already have the general math knowledge that their degree will need.

Jeannie Fulbright was right when she said, “If the purpose for learning is to score well on a test, we’ve lost sight of the real reason for learning.” (teacherswithapps.com). The real reason for learning and a good education is one that will not only bring success in life, but one that will bring joy and wisdom. A life where one is not curious and eager to learn new information is a dull one. Schools should be striving to make their students believe in this and the power that knowledge brings. Instead, schools are so caught up in preparing their students for tests that what they don't realize is that they are turning students against education. Students want to be asked about their views on world that they will one day control and the impact they hope to make in their lifetime, but their education is so driven towards scoring well on a test that they are never able to fully speak their minds. Education is becoming a haunting thing to these young minds, and that is all due to standardized testing and the effects it brings. Most people go to grade school for twelve years of their lives. Those twelve years are their youth, a time that is irreplaceable. Youth should be driven by wonder, hopes, and aspirations, not the memorization of the quadratic formula or the periodic table of elements. It's not the teacher's fault that the lives of students revolve around these

“Making mathematics mandatory prevents us from discovering and developing young talent.” This help shows that if we do force algebra on students who aren’t getting it currently. Then its just keeping us back from discovering from who they are and what their national talents truly is. If we were to maybe teach these people a unique way of algebra through something they find interesting and are good at then maybe so many won’t fail. But since we get taught the boring textbook way and not a unique and cool way then not only do we start to slack in algebra

The infographic looks at the Common Core State Standards’ stance on algebra, which is taught in the eighth grade. According to the Common Core, students who take algebra can become familiar with more complex math courses as they progress through school, and will have more knowledge when they enter college. However, the infographic points out that childhood brain development tends to plateau in the eighth

The “Accelerated Algebra Issue” has been leaving educators and parents over some difficult questions. When should formal algebra be taught? Who should be taking Accelerated Algebra 1/Geometry or any accelerated mathematics course in middle school or in high school? How should algebra be presented and in what form? How should student placement be determined?

High school and college students shouldn’t be required to take a class where over half of them fail. A student should be able to have a choice over whether they can take a class with more conceptual ideas for a challenge, or if they would like to take a class that could be more beneficial in the real world. Plus what a student thinks will be more beneficial differs between each one. However, it’s very unlikely that most students would even apply the lessons they learn in algebra II to their daily lives. Some examples of useless math would be factoring, polynomials, matrices, geometric proofs, and the entirety of calculus. These things are just not used by a majority of people in their daily lives. At some point people just forget about what they learned in algebra II and calculus. Students in high school can even have trouble remembering some of the lessons they learned in prior

Another key point worth repeating was to learn that only 5% of students will actually use algebra or other advance forms of algebra in their adult lives. (Wiggins, 2011) As the curriculum and instructional coach at our school, a special education teacher and I have an-ongoing debate about what special education students need that is practical for them to know when they

Many aspects of students’ lives dwell on how they do on tests, such as the ACT, SAT, or even their basic grades to be accepted in to college. The tests need to be designed to accurately gather information on the knowledge of the student, the ACT only asks you a hand full of questions on basic subject yet take math for instance there are thousands of areas in math to understand and master. Not only are there more than very specific questions asked the tests do not take in to account the different ways people solve problems such as having to write out question. Some students such as myself cannot do mental math and it takes us longer to understand the question we are being asked to evaluate, yet the ACT is a timed test. This creates a bias in the system that students don’t know math were the real problem could either be test anxiety or a lack of time given to properly complete the test. Testing is deeply rooted in students’ lives, making it an ever more pressing matter to fix the issues that concern us

According to livescience less than a quarter of workers actually need complex math. If less than a quarter of workers actually use their educational background, which brings up the question on why do students have to learn these unique

Most students in my algebra II class, in high school, disliked math substantially. Math was only required to be taken for two years and if you were going to attend college, Algebra II was a requirement. When their two years were up, I could say that about half the students did not continue math. Many students in my Pre-Cal class always had a thing about asking the teacher when they were ever going to solve a problem like that in the “real world”. I noticed that the ones who had lower standards for example, they were set on going to the junior college or going straight to working, did not continue math after two years in high school. The students who were set on going to a four year university continued on with math. The students with lower standards did not care to go above and beyond. This had me thinking. If some students felt that math was useless in the “real world”, why are we required to take it? In my opinion I feel that students should be required to take a math class as a GE requirement, but it should be math that is applied to the “real world”. Those who need math in their career can continue their math studies even further.