Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Yes, Math is Necessary

My sister recommended I write about this article in August.  Sorry for the delay.

       In his opinion piece of July 28, Is Algebra Necessary, Andrew Hacker, a professor emeritus at CUNY lays out his case that learning math in high school and college is pretty pointless.  He reminds us that math is often cited as one of the academic reasons that students drop out of high school, and that anecdotal evidence suggests that stumbling over college algebra is the reason many who begin college programs do not go on to earn bachelor degrees. 
       Are you really saying, Hacker, that if we made degrees easier to get that more people would get degrees?  Of course they would.  If you didn't have to take math to graduate from college then tons more people would graduate form college.  Yay!!  What if we cut out foreign languages too?  We're cutting out writing papers!  College is now just 1 year, and it's all multiple choice pass fail quizzes - and only your top 3 grades count toward your final score.  Hooray!  Now tons more people can graduate from college.
       Andrew Hacker also just doesn't believe that students should have to learn things that they are unlikely to need in their future careers.  How they are supposed to know their future careers at the age of 14 (or even 22) I have no idea.  He mentions doctors for an example: 

Medical schools like Harvard and Johns Hopkins demand calculus of all their applicants, even if it doesn’t figure in the clinical curriculum, let alone in subsequent practice. Mathematics is used as a hoop, a badge, a totem to impress outsiders and elevate a profession’s status.

What about that college French those future doctors learned?  Do they use that in practice - because med schools look at those grades too.  Do doctors need to know about plate tectonics or Picasso to diagnose gall stones?  No, they don't.  But that's not the point.  Education is, especially at the high school and undergraduate level, about teaching students how to learn and how to think - not just new facts and skills.  It's about trying different subjects, and learning what you enjoy and at what you excel.  My degrees are in art history.  Did I have to sit down and memorize the dates of a bajillion pyramids, Greek vases, and temples?  Heck yes.  Do I remember them as well as I knew them then?  Heck no.  Do I use them in my daily life?  Oh Hells to the no.  But that's not the point.  The point is that I know what it takes to sit down and memorize facts and recite them later.  I know how to study for a test.  I learned how to go to a library and open a book, show up on time, and not piss people off too much.  I know how to produce a product to meet a deadline.  And those are just skills that you can't learn any other way.
       If you don't think algebra is necessary, Hacker, I would like to ask you about Dasmine Cathey.  Mr. Cathey was a young man who was recruited to play football for, and graduated from, the University of Memphis despite the fact that he was functionally illiterate when he matriculated.  There were a number of tragic things in this young man's life, and I don't judge him, he certainly appears to have many other good qualities, but he was no student.  You might be asking how in the world he could have earned a college degree with so little ability to read and write.  I certainly have no idea.  Using the above link you can read several of his college papers, that he willingly shared.  One is entitled:  Some Important Womans.
       It doesn't get better from there.  When asked how he was given passing grades in classes that required reading and writing, the professors that The Chronicle of Higher Education interviewed all said that they wouldn't discuss a particular student with journalists, but that they did award passing (if not quite good) grades if the student showed improvement. 
       That's one of the important things about math; instructors can't give passing grades just for improvement.  The teacher can't take pity on you because you're really trying or because she's a football fan and you are great for the team.  Effort and creativity don't matter.  It's just about learning the material and producing a product.  That's one of the reasons that math can be a handy guide for med school admissions counselors, because you can't BS your way through it.  I'm not saying you can BS your way through other subjects, I had to memorize the dates of all those Rembrandts after all, but the above article on Dasmine Cathey is an example of how human instructors are, about how wanting students to do well may make them a bit too forgiving, and how we can't let our desire for more graduates make us lower the bar for all college students.  A college degree has to really mean something, and it's not for everybody. 
       A final note.  I hated algebra.  It was the lowest grade I got in high school - by far.  But I passed algebra, and I have to admit, I honestly do use it from time to time.