On May 14, 9:33=A0am, Penny Gaines <pe...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Beliavsky wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> > Most people are not smart enough to go to college, but they can be
> > productive members of society. People who have not mastered algebra
> > should not be in college in the first place.
>
> Why not?
>
> Probably one factor in your view is your opinion of what college is for.
> =A0 I don't want to speak for individuals, but it seems that Americans
> tend to think of college as being a place to provide a broad knowledge
> in several subject areas, whereas in the UK the aim of tertiary
> education is to continue the specialisation that students started when
> they were 14yo.
There is some merit in this view.
However, the problem under discussion is not limited to mathematics.
Many of today's college students can not write either. Too many
colleges are having to give "remedial bonehead English" courses,
in addition to remedial math courses.
The generic problem is that owing to financial considerations,
colleges
are admitting any piece of canon fodder who can pay the tuition.
However, I really don't see it as a real problem except for two
things:
(1) The frustrated professors who have to deal with people who are not
really
capable of doing college level work.
(2) Employers can no longer rely upon a person having a college degree
as
anything meaningful.
So what if people who are intellectually incapable manage to get into
college?
Who are they harming? Most of them won't graduate anyway. Meanwhile,
they
help pay the salaries of professors....
I quote RAH:
Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best
he is a
tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make
messes
in the house.
I would say the same thing applies to anyone who can not write cogent
English
(or whatever their native language happens to be).
>
> If you are going to study history, or languages, why do you need
> mathematics? =A0
For a specialty education, clearly one does not. However, virtually
all
colleges in the U.S. are liberal arts college.
>You can get into Oxford or Cambridge Universities (in the
> UK) with no formal mathematics qualification, which if you are British,
> means you may be unable to master algebra.
Whatever happened to "jack of all trades and master of one"?
This last viewpoint discards "jack of all trades".
I would also argue that if one is going to be a responsible citizen
who
votes, then one needs mathematics and science to keep from getting
conned by political soundbites with respect to issues such as
global warming, environmental issues, resource issues etc. One also
needs
to be able to *****s false use of statistics to promote political
agenda.
Hey! This is a terrific idea! Let's drop the REQUIREMENT for math
and
science. Make it optional. At the same time, let's only allow people
to
vote who have shown reasonable mastery of both subjects!!!
> Wouldn't you say that being able to read complex written do***ents and
> being able to select the most relevant points is a major part of
> "critical thinking skills", and is irrelevant to algebra.
No, I would not, if the do***ent deals with ANY technical issue.
Otherwise, how would one know if an argument were bogus???
Also, I believe that studies have shown that strong language skills
are highly correlated with strong quantitative skills. I believe that
someone
who has "strong critical thinking skills", yet is a moron in math is a
rare
individual.
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