My main problem with this is not that not everyone is able complete a
"college education," as I have always understood that term (sort-of), but
rather that our system doesn't seem to provide many good alternatives to
those who need them, and does not seem to value them very highly when it
does. When I encounter students (and it happens almost daily) who haven't
the appropriate preparation (or life experiences, or time, or lifestyles,
or behavior habits), and who just can't seem to learn math, no matter how
hard they try, I feel helpless. There just seems to be nowhere for them to
go. But would it not be condescending to lower our standards, or remove or
substitute degree requirements, in order to accommodate those who can't
meet the same standards as other students? Do we want to develop degrees
with asterisks?
John M. Flanigan <johnf@hawaii.edu> The equation is the final arbiter.
Assistant Professor, Mathematics --Werner Heisenberg
Kapi'olani Community College The scoreboard is the final arbiter.
4303 Diamond Head Road --Bill Walton
Honolulu HI 96816 History is the final arbiter.
(808) 734-9371 --Edward Gibbon
On Tue, 30 Mar 1999, Sandy Wagner wrote:
> I have a different slant on the L.A. Times article (posted by Beth Hentges
> 3/26/99) from the reaction posted by John Flanigan. Although not teaching
> right now (16 years of dev math through calculus in the past), I am
> currently helping a 36-year old non-native English speaker with college
> algebra (i.e. HS algebra I and a little bit of II) in a nearby community
> college. What I see is a course that has absolutely no connection with his
> future plans. I can imagine a math course that would be worth fighting to
> keep as a requirement (Martha Haehl and others have described such courses
> on this list), but factoring trinomials, simplifying complicated rational
> expressions, solving radical equations, and solving 'only in math class'
> word problems would not be in that syllabus.
>
> I see a situation similar to those described in the article: certain jobs
> are requiring or rewarding an AA degree, but that degree has a math
> requirement meant for future engineers or others on the path to calculus
> (and we could argue whether that technology-free syllabus is the right one
> for the calculus path). The result is that community college math is
> preventing some people from joining the workforce in jobs they are qualified
> for. And those who finally pass their math requirement have learned nothing
> much for all those tears and troubles, except that math is incredibly
> difficult, is separated from reality, and 'I'm no good at it.'
>
> PS: my friend is doing fine in his second language in the English 1A
> requirement for the university transfer program and likewise has navigated
> through college biology and various social science classes. And he's
> holding down a full time job while taking 2 or 3 classes per semester. His
> Algebra is different from all his other courses - there is no connection
> with anything he knows or needs; it's a bunch of disconnected processes that
> will be soon forgotten.
>
> William J. (Sandy) Wagner
> Menlo Park, CA
>
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