Does 'Algebra for Everyone' Add Up?

NIMS

Good post, but have you thought about Does 'Algebra for Everyone' Add Up before?

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We are putting the cart before the horse!

I have taught ninth grade Algebra I for seven years in California. I have tried every strategy I can think of to make Algebra understandable, interesting, and relevant. The hard, cold truth is that unless I can go home and enforce homework policy on over 130 students every day, around 50% of my students will fail every year. I tell my students that math is like a sport, if you don't practice, you will not remember the plays for the big game. I call home, but nothing changes. Some students never do homework. It is so discouraging to watch students who could pass the class, throw their grade away due to apathy and disinterest in the subject. Several others here have already identified the reason Algebra policy is doomed to failure in this country, American parents, who may have struggled with Math themselves, make excuses for their children. It will take at least one generation of extremely well taught students to cycle through and set high expectations for their children before we will make gains on the world. Enforcing eighth grade Algebra is putting the cart before the horse. It must start in elementary school with highly trained teachers and strict remediation policies. Then as students are ready for the Algebra, we can place them in the course.

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To each child his own.....

Our daughter is in the 7th grade, at age 12. She didn't do as well as we'd liked in regular 6th grade math, but chose to have her do pre-algebra anyway. She likes the challenge it presents and is catching on to it pretty well. Our son, 3rd grade, at age 8, however, is flying through it in his curriculum. He only needs to see an example a few times and off he goes. Of course, in the 3rd grade, we're only touching on it and not getting too in-debth. But if I didn't fear it hurting our daughter's pride, I would venture to say that he would continue to sail on through pre-algebra, with a bit help from us.

So it depends on the child and whether they've been allowed to adjust to the different levels of math throughout their schooling. That's just my 2-cents' worth!!

Why?

As a teacher of Algebra I in the 8th grade for the last 18 years I ask myself, why do we want everyone to talk algebar at this age? Many students are not mathematically mature enough to understand the concepts that are tausht in Algebra I and have not yet mastered the basic skills required for 8th grade math...for what purpose, if students are forced to take Algebra I as an 8th grader are we going to add another course for them to take in high school or require them 5 years of math...one of the worst things that can happen is for a student to "finish the required math" during their Junior year and coast thru the Senior year without any math classes. These are the students that are getting to college ill prepared for college math courses and are having to take additional remedial, non-credit courses in mathematics when they get to college. If they were required to have 4 years of math and began in the 9th grade with Algebra I, they would be much better prepared for college.

Why are people so insistent on early algebra, for those students that are not planning on majoring in a math intensive degree or graduating early from high school there is not purpose in 8th grade algebra. At our school it has become somewhat ofa status symbol and a way to "keep kids away from the discipline problems."

If a student is not ready for the rigor of Algebra I they should not be required to take it as an 8th grader!!

Reality Check

I have been teaching Algebra in high school for almost nine years now. The idea that all students can handle Algebra in the 8th grade is wonderful, as an idea. The reality is that most students are not ready for Algebra in the 9th grade, much less 8th. There are those who are ready and interested enough to tackle Algebra in 8th grade, but they are the minority.

The lack of preparation for high school math is simultaneously astonishing and depressing. I have seniors who cannot pass the California High School Exit Exam, which is mostly 7th grade math standards. I have students who do not know their miltiplication tables. But worst of all, I have students who hate math so passionately they will do nothing at all for me.

With my limited experience, I have come to the conclusion that it starts and end at home. Parents have to instill that desire for knowledge. They have to show their children that the future is bright when they have an education. I have so many students who don't see the value of education. They do not see it affecting their future. And by the time they get here, it often seems like it is too late.

Seriously

Lets think about this. The reason that those other countries have higher scores in those areas is because they weed their students out. In Japan they determine what you may specialize in at a young age. If you aren't going to be good at math they don't out you in math. Instead they put you in trade school.

In America we are equal educators. Everyone has to be able to do everything. That is not possible. If all children were good at everything we wouldn't have this problem. Personally, I got exceptional math education in Elementary but I am overall horrible at the subject. Instead, I was very good with my verbal and written skills and now have a degree in something I specialize in English and Psychology. If someone would have made me take an advance math class, such as Algebra, when I was in middle school, I would have failed. That failer could have lead to many things, even a discision not to continue on with my education.

I think that if a child is good at math they should be encouraged to take Alegbra in Middle School. If they are not they should not be made to. Its unfair to the child to treat them as a mass unit. Find what the child is good at and let them excel in it, don't force them to do something that only frustrates them and makes them question their own intelligence.

Math always made me feel stupid, I'm sure if I would have been forced to take it, it would have done a number on my self esteem.

Overall, I just wish America would stop forcing everyone into equal education. We are not all the same, we need individual education. If a childs good at math fine, put them in math. If they are good at music, drawing, english, or any other thing then put them in that. Let them shine at what they're good at but don't make them feel dumb for not being able to one thing. Yes, teach them life skills and things along those lines. I mean whatever happened to teaching courses in life skills, shop, or on fixing cars, what happened to teaching kids how to file, type properly, or learn how to be organized. We are so busy focusing on the academics that we forget that not all kids are going to be the engineer or the doctor, some are going to be interested in car maintence or building furniture and we need to make sure those kids get the proper incouragment and education in those fields.

Our country is going down the toilet

We need to stop passing kids to the next grade when they are failing. They cannot read, writing is a lost past time, and math is joke to these kids. They go home and play Grand Theft Auto (killing, shooting, picking up hookers), school is not exciting. Get rid of your televisions and video games. We are raising disrespectful, druggy, overly sexualized brats. Stop breeding!

Early Algebra

To add to my previous comment....look at this article about MIT Lincoln Labs and Math and Science...especially the last paragraph's "...over the past two decades the number of students receiving technical degrees at U.S. universities "has remained unchanged" while "demand for science and engineering workers has grown at four times the rate of the U.S. workforce."

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/lift2-0104.html