‘A Bankrupt Concept of Math’: Some Educators Argue Calculus Should Be Dethroned
The 74 via Yahoo | March 13, 2023 | Jo NapolitanoSuccessful completion of high school calculus has long been an unofficial must-have for those seeking admission to the nation’s top colleges: The course has, for decades, served as a signal to admissions officers that a student’s coursework has been robust.
But some in education say it’s time to reconsider this de facto requirement: Many schools — particularly those serving large numbers of Black, Hispanic or low-income students — don’t offer the course.
Well, then, complain about the school’s administrators, not the course. Duh. “No one studies Shakespeare because we don’t offer it as a course.”
And even when they do, it’s of dubious value, they say.
“High school calculus is a complete waste of time and a form of torture,” said Alan Garfinkel, professor of integrative biology and physiology and medicine at UCLA. “The view … that math is a bunch of symbolic expressions, and you bang on them with tricks to get other symbolic expressions, is a bankrupt concept of math, dating from the 19th century.”
The course, as it’s often taught at the high school level, is inaccessible and often perceived as irrelevant to students’ interests, critics say. Just 16% of high school graduates earned credit for calculus in 2019, according to data culled by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a statistic no doubt shaped by its unavailability.
I do have a bee in my bonnet about calculus:
It wasn’t a requirement in my high school.
(Nobody ever whispered to me that it was “an unofficial must-have.”)
We had something for the math dummies like me, called “Introduction to Calculus.” It explained limits and approaches-to-limits in basic, understandable algebraic terms. Never got to much calculus. This was a year-long course, mind you.
I was still a math dummy. (Algebra and trig, OK — just not calculus.)Got to college — where it was assumed everyone already knew calculus. Whoops! Took some kind of remedial intro course. But you were allowed to drop one course and not have it count against your GPA. Guess which one got chosen.
As we English majors say, I still have a bee in my bonnet. If it’s not out of keeping with the situation.
Trig are for kids.
Imaginary numbers require imaginary solutions , and where we’re going there are no limits…
It would come in handy for when you calculate the volume of shipholds and how many billions can go into them…
What throws everyone off is when they have to convert it to the metric system from the Dewey Decimal…or vice versa.
They stopped teaching something as simple as Cursive writing years ago… why keep something as hard as, and unused as Calculus ? And yes, I got a C in shop math, learned Algebra and Trig in the service, because they made me BELIEVE it would keep me alive! I’m still here.
The best example I’ve seen of the utility of calculus is the episode of Dirty Jobs where Mike worked at a tannery.
Unless you’re majoring in a science or engineering field, calculus is not very useful. However, I think many more Americans should be going to college for STEM degrees
(or trade school) and not all these B.S. BA soft degrees that are essentially participation trophies. I also wonder though, how accurate those statistics are. My high school didn’t offer “high school calculus”, they offered AP calculus and it was for college credit. It was taught by the most boring person ever, who was dressed like a ’70s porn star.
I had a teacher that looked just like Linda Lovelace and if you called her that it was straight to the principals office.
I can see how calculus is useful for business/economics, and when calculus is paired up with analytic geometry, its usefulness is increased.
My father insisted that I take Trig. I was the worst shot in the family.
It helps thinking and using abstractions which is generally useful but by all means stop teaching it. Especially since you probably can’t hire anyone capable of teaching it anyway.
“New Math” just about destroyed me for math in grade school. Almost flunked the high school honors advanced algebra class I was put in because of my reading level – I never saw “algebra” in grade school – just number lines and Venn diagrams. Graduated grade school in 1966.
DeVry Tech taught me trig and other stuff – the instructor one day said to us – you know, for the last few weeks you’ve been doing differential calculus – I was floored.
Got good marks later on in differential equations on my way toward a BSEE. Removing the opportunity for poorer kids is just another level of what LBJ started to keep them down on the plantation.
I was bused across s small town so that I could take Pre-Calculus (late 1970s). So maybe you don’t need to teach full calculus in High School. That said, Calculus is a more useful skill than any of the AP Social Studies offered today. Furthermore, it teaches skills in critical thinking and problem solving as discussed above. It is not a “complete waste of time” as suggested by Professor Garfinkel (PG). PG’s overview web page at UCLA says the following “The traditional calculus coursework, to people like Garfinkel, is totally outdated. It’s about memorizing formulas and using paper-and-pencil techniques that, in his view, haven’t been cutting edge in this century. And it’s a large factor, he says, that pushes minorities and women out of STEM, because they may have had less experience in traditional math before arriving at college.” … so I fear that he falls into the California cliche of it’s too hard and hurts feelings. If a high school can offer such a class they should; if a college takes students that have not had it, they should offer remedial courses or perhaps encourage students to take a year at Community College to fill in the requirements they need.
Cool story bro.
Have you ever thought about running for Secretary of Education?
Secretary of Labor (or EDD in California) seems a lower bar.