Abandoning Algebra Is Not the Answer

[HereSince1628]

10. As a student Charles Darwin disliked mathematics and the discipline it required

However in his autobiography he also wrote that he wished he had learned the basic principles of math, “for men thus endowed seem to have an extra sense.”

For ecologists, there is powerful insight hiding in the dominant latent root of a community transition matrix. Matrix algebra was part of my high school Algebra course. Little did I know in the late 1960's that the algebra I was learning would, 30 years later allow me to evaluate the stability of sea-bird communities along the Russian White Sea.

Who is it that can look at a classroom and say, no one here will need algebra? Who is it that can look a society and say you are all to be Wal-mart drones, don't bother learning algebra?

Culture is the cumulative whole that supports civilization. Culture is what is shared from generation to generation. How is anyone so empowered as to look out upon a generation and say--your life has no need for the gifts of mathematics handed down from the Arabs and the Greeks? Who would reduce entire generations to slaves?