Trend-starting Texas drops algebra II mandate

[Igel]

105. Yup.

We like science and progress.

But if it's more than 9th grade, if we can't use it in the future--say, by this coming Thursday--then it's really a waste of time.

And people miss the point: What's needed in American education isn't a one-size-fits-all, make everything that's challenging either required or optional. Too many kids at age 16 have no clue; they need to be pushed into academic challenges when their chief concern is being popular or showing that they're independent. Psycho-social trumps academic and long-range planning for many of them.

What's needed is a way to separate out kids. Some really lack so much background that they'll have great trouble catching up, if they even want to. Some lack the mental muscle to handle certain kinds of thinking, or thinking at a complex level. Some just like auto mechanics, construction, work that doesn't require the same kind of abstract education. Have a track for them to learn career/vocational skills. But make it clear that if you follow that track college will be a stretch when you graduate.

Those that can handle academic rigor need to be pushed into it if that's where their future probably lies.

As for academic success in algebra I and II, for most kids it's not a lack of intelligence. It's a lack of effort. If you think it's too hard, if you think it's pointless, you don't put in the effort, the thoughtful or meaningful practice, and so you get low grades. (Recent research basically shows a very strong correlation between effort and grade, and slight correlation with standard measures of IQ. And one of the glories of math is that it's not reliant on most background knowledge.)