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The role of algebra in life
Why algebra is important for everyday life
Why algebra is important for everyday life
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“Think of math as a huge boulder we make everyone pull, without assessing what all this pain achieves. So why require it, without alternatives or exceptions? Thus far I haven’t found a compelling answer.” - Andrew Hacker. People endorsing or opposing algebra in school both can agree that algebra can be difficult for many students. This does not mean algebra is hard for every students. Students should just not ignore struggling with algebra, but get assistance and help themselves become better at algebra. People should look at algebra with a perspective that some people do not have the ability to learn algebra. Some people believe algebra is the main reason for students dropping out of school. Conversely, some other people believe algebra teaches students critical, intellectual reasoning skills. Algebra is essential for life and should stay apart of education for three main reasons: teaches students …show more content…
Algebra is the only subject in school and in math that uses letters and numbers to find the answer of a problem. Algebra shows the relationship of how one solution or problem changes the other solution or problem. Algebra helps teach student’s minds to be always looking for a solution for the problem that they are faced with. Not only are student’s minds looking for solutions, but algebra encourages their minds to develop reasoning skills. Students can find that algebra is involved in their other classes and algebra helps them to think critically in these classes. Algebra helps out generation to keep thinking. Many people believe that we should take algebra because it is hard and can lead to students dropping out of school. If schools get rid of algebra because it is hard and to make students life easier. We would be “dumbing down” our generation and in the future “dumbing down” our nation. Algebra in this generation and if kept in future generations will help the generation to find solutions in more than one
Algebra is one of the major parts in exams like GRE and ACT so that all college students and high school students need to learn. In order to get a good grade, students are willing to spend hours and hours studying hard on things like matrices and equations. When they are wondering why they have to learn things so difficult and if this knowledge would be useful in the future time. Andrew Hacker, the author of "Is Algebra Necessary?", thinks not. In his editorial, he argues that students, especially those who are not majoring in math, should not be forced to learn high-level math. His arguments are very effective because he successfully uses logos, pathos and ethos in his editorial. The usage of the rhetorical triangle made his editorial logical,
I was never one to be inclined towards math or science. I always felt that English and writing were more my speed, and in turn I enjoyed them more. From Susan Jacoby’s point of view as shown in her essay “When Bright Girls Decide That Math is a Waste of Time,” this would not have been a good enough reason for me to stop taking those subjects in my later years of high school. However, I disagree. I think learning, especially as you get older and closer to college-age, should be about the subjects that allow you to thrive and discover yourself, not about those that you struggle with and cause you stress.
Math is everywhere when most people first think of math or the word “Algebra,” they don’t get too excited. Many people say “Math sucks” or , “When are we ever going to use it in our lives.” The fact is math will be used in our lives quite frequently. For example, if we go watch a softball game all it is, is one giant math problem. Softball math can be used in many
Education has changed. We must learn a new style of teaching. Retrain ourselves to listen to lecture and overwhelming workloads. It has been 34 years since I graduated high school, I remember the basics math was simply it only required addition, subtraction, multiplication and fraction and we were done. A+ ( ) =
My personal view regarding algebra being a requirement for a degree program has changed from years pasted. If you had asked me this same question as a kid I would have said algebra as a requirement is a terrible idea. 7th grade was the first time I can remember ever seeing an algebra problem and to me it was like a foreign language. All the alphabets and numbers just didn’t make any since to me and many times I just except I wasn’t very smart in math. I struggled from that point on all the way through high school barely passing my math classes. It wasn’t until I failed many math courses at the local community college and by luck was in Mrs. Brown college math class that the light came on. I wasn’t I couldn’t learn
The Algebra II course was a college-prep lecture; they were at a higher level than a general class. With the title of the course, I expected to see well-behaved, attentive learners, who were interested in mathematics. When the apprentices did become disruptive or talkative, I expected that the teacher would discipline the students by sending them out into the hall or to the office, as occurred in my high school classes. I also expected to see a teacher that challenged the students’ knowledge of the subject, and pupils who gladly accepted that challenge. Finally, I anticipated the class lessons to go as follows: collect homework, class notes which are copied by the students, time set aside for the children to practice this work via worksheets and example problems, and then the assignment of homework for the next day. These expectations influenced the ways that I observed and reacted to Ms. Stone’s mathematics
It is a well-known fact that math is an essential expertise all through the world. You require math for nearly everything. Without the utilization of math inside callings, there would not be any, instructors, mathematicians, business administrators, just to name a few. A typical misguided judgement is that math will not be needed for anything after schooling is complete, but that it simply not the case. Students would lack in major business skills and everyday tasks, due to the absence of math. In fact, math is not only needed for more complex jobs like mathematicians, it is also required for simpler like cashiers. Isn’t it the cashier’s responsibility to provide you with the correct amount of change? Exactly. Math is a staple skill that cannot
We all can agree that the American Education System is not perfect. We have too many classes that are unnecessary and just causing more problems for our children. Classes such as Algebra are holding back student’s full potential by giving them a hard class that they probably won’t need in the future. There are other necessary classes that should replace ones such as Algebra. There should be a class in which children learn how to take over the world ( or at least a country)
The New York Times also explains that “State regents and legislators — and much of the public — take it as self-evident that every young person should be made to master polynomial functions and parametric equations.” They think that kids can do things that they can't. Then when the kid fails they make themselves look bad and then the kid the school and the district looks bad. Algebra is a hard subject to learn and then with all the pressure the kids can't get the grades they should have gotten. This makes it so the kid can't move on to college and the kid won't follow what they wanted to do in the future.
According to Nel Noddings, the main reason why students fail algebra is due to lack readiness and amount of interest in the subject. So the earlier you start teaching algebra and with using the right techniques, the better off the students will be. The best way to teach algebra is “to follow the children’s lead rather than to lead them” and use illustrations that are engaging (Schwartz and Whitin, 2000). Also, by using real world problems, the students can create their own understanding, such as making an equation. Specifically looking at Barbara Moses, the students created the equation with guided instruction from the teacher, but some students can complete these types of tasks on their own. As stated by Moses, “Algebra is essential because
As a secondary subject, society often views mathematics a critical subject for students to learn in order to be successful. Often times, mathematics serves as a gatekeeper for higher learning and certain specific careers. Since the times of Plato, “mathematics was virtually the first thing everyone has to learn…common to all arts, science, and forms of thought” (Stinson, 2004). Plato argued that all students should learn arithmetic; the advanced mathematics was reserved for those that would serve as the “philosopher guardians” of the city (Stinson, 2004). By the 1900s in the United States, mathematics found itself as a cornerstone of curriculum for students. National reports throughout the 20th Century solidified the importance of mathematics in the success of our nation and its students (Stinson, 2004). As a mathematics teacher, my role to educate all students in mathematics is an important one. My personal philosophy of mathematics education – including the optimal learning environment and best practices teaching strategies – motivates my teaching strategies in my personal classroom.
Many students view mathematics as a very difficult subject since it does not only focusses on numbers but also in letters. Mathematics does not only require the students to come up with an answer but it also requires them to show the solutions on how they arrived at the answer. While in elementary, students were already taught on how to solve problems in a step-by-step procedure starting with what is asked in the problem, what are the given, make a number sentence or formulate an equation and solve the problem. These procedures are called problem-solving which cannot only apply in mathematics but also in other areas such as in Science, businesses and most
Devlin believes that mathematics has four faces 1) Mathematics is a way to improve thinking as problem solving. 2) Mathematics is a way of knowing. 3) Mathematics is a way to improve creative medium. 4) Mathematics is applications. (Mann, 2005). Because mathematics has very important role in our life, teaching math in basic education is as important as any other subjects. Students should study math to help them how to solve problems and meet the practical needs such as collect, count, and process the data. Mathematics, moreover, is required students to be capable of following and understanding the future. It also helps students to be able to think creativity, logically, and critically (Happy & Listyani, 2011,
What is math? If you had asked me that question at the beginning of the semester, then my answer would have been something like: “math is about numbers, letters, and equations.” Now, however, thirteen weeks later, I have come to realize a new definition of what math is. Math includes numbers, letters, and equations, but it is also so much more than that—math is a way of thinking, a method of solving problems and explaining arguments, a foundation upon which modern society is built, a structure that nature is patterned by…and math is everywhere.
Logic and mathematics starting with basic arithmetic showed me how to follow steps, one at a time and one after another, to arrive at the results, one step at a time and after another. I learned that an error in one step will make all the following steps and results wrong. Mathematics like any other rule and pattern based discipline may show through experience and trial or error, how to solve problems first by following given methods and later, if needed, by combining and exploring different methods.