Opening up my computer this sunny, Sunday morning, I ran across the headline “Is Algebra Necessary?,” and nearly spit out my coffee. For those that don’t know, in a few short weeks, I will starting my first year of teaching 7th graders at Davis Hills Middle School in Huntsville, AL– in that dreaded, hated subject of math.
I’ve never been naturally gifted in math or science myself. Going through school, my natural talents were always in the social sciences and humanities. However, this preference for liberal arts education never stopped me from taking 5 math classes during high school. As much as math can be grueling, frustrating, or boring, the reality is that math isn’t optional. Math is everything. We need math every day of our lives- from things as simple as measuring ingredients for a cake, building a fence, balancing a check book or calculating a bill to things as complex as fixing an engine or developing new GPS software.
The concerns raised by Dr. Hacker, in my opinion, speak more to issues with our educational system as a whole, issues that I would like to quick address in this post.
1. “Nor is it clear that the math we learn in the classroom has any relation to the quantitative reasoning we need on the job. John P. Smith III, an educational psychologist at Michigan State University who has studied math education, has found that “mathematical reasoning in workplaces differs markedly from the algorithms taught in school.”
In short- we teach students facts and formulas to memorize, not HOW to consider, manipulate, and think about math. This failure to teach critical thinking on a large scale in this country is exactly what has prompted a national movement toward the Common Core State Standards Initiative, an initiative that my state and district have mandated participation in, starting this year. The Common Core, as it is called for short, approaches necessary skills of math through a lens of problem solving and critical thinking- not just a mere memorization of formulas. I agree with Dr. Hacker in this respect. When we merely teach our students tricks and formulas, they have no reason to remember, care, or be invested in our subject, and the course becomes essentially useless to their education and development as individuals. However, when we let students discover, create, and ultimately own their math education, these processes of critical thinking can only enhance their ability to flourish in fields outside of STEM.
2. “A typical American school day finds some six million high school students and two million college freshmen struggling with algebra. In both high school and college, all too many students are expected to fail. Why do we subject American students to this ordeal? I’ve found myself moving toward the strong view that we shouldn’t.”
Yes, because students are consistently struggling in a subject, we should just stop teaching it. No. No, no, no. This logic is a mirror reflection of this generation’s ridiculous grade inflation and reluctance to do anything outside of our comfort zone in terms of success. I know that my personal struggle to succeed with math and science was lined with a series of failures initially- but my perseverance through the subject was vital to my character development.
If anything, Dr. Hacker’s rationale on this point only enforces why, more than ever, it is crucial for us to push higher math education in the United States. The high drop out rates, alarming percentages of students who need to take remedial math courses in college, or need to retake math courses in their entirety does send a loud and clear message to teachers like myself though- we need to dramatically change the way we teach and apply math principles. As a whole, the nation’s approach to teaching math seems to fullfil Einstein’s famous quote that the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Dr. Hacker provides an alternative of teaching “quantitative reasoning” at ages as young as kindergarden- I completely agree. The more students understand solid connections to the real world, the more that they will internalize the knowledge we are teaching them.
3. “Instead of investing so much of our academic energy in a subject that blocks further attainment for much of our population, I propose that we start thinking about alternatives. Thus mathematics teachers at every level could create exciting courses in what I call “citizen statistics.” This would not be a backdoor version of algebra, as in the Advanced Placement syllabus. Nor would it focus on equations used by scholars when they write for one another. Instead, it would familiarize students with the kinds of numbers that describe and delineate our personal and public lives.”
Dr. Hacker, with all due respect to you as a scholar and writer, for someone who relies on statistical analysis as a crucial part of your field, you seem to have no idea what goes into statistics. Please tell me, how in the world can I expect my students to analyze their data regarding personal habits and academic performance, or to interpret a scatterplot with information, without having a strong foundation in Algebraic concepts such as expression, the number system, and proportions and probability? You can’t piecemeal mathematical concepts. They all play an important relational role to one another, and students must have the whole picture before we ask them to pick apart the pieces.
The Bottom Line: Mathematics is not the intrinsic problem. The way that we teach it is. We need to invest our students, our society, in the need and application of this vital subject. Math, just like English, social sciences, theatre, music, and science (as well as many other subjects), contribute to well-rounded and active citizenship. Without the ability to communicate across disciplines and lines of difference, our society will continue to stagnate in development.
Coffee and Faith 