>I want to pose a slightly different variation of Dick Benson's question.
>Considering that most students seeking A.A. degrees transfer to B.A.
>programs and many of those degree programs require just a mathematics for
>the liberal arts student course similar to the COMAP For All Practical
>Purposes material, just how much algebra does a student need to be
>prepared for that college course?
>
What does need have to do with it?
I have often heard arguments made for omitting parts of the curriculum
simply because students don't need to know it. This makes it seem like
mathematics is some sort of big secret, which will only be revealed in bits
and pieces to certain students on a "need to know" basis. Does this mean
that a student who simply signs up for a mathematics course out of a desire
to learn mathematics will not be served, or that things which are just
plain good for an educated person to know will be omitted?
Things which students need to know should certainly be included as a bare
minimum core of the curriculum, but we owe it to them to pile on lots of
other things, for many reasons in addition to the above. For one thing, it
gives them plenty to forget with impunity while retaining what they "need
to know". If we teach them just barely enough to get by, what happens when
they forget one piece of information and don't have enough to get by?
Wayne Neidhardt
Edmonds Community College
Lynnwood, WA