In article <gc6rf5-6lg.ln1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Penny Gaines <penny@[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.
> 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.
>If you are going to study history, or languages, why do you need
>mathematics? 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.
Historians and linguists nowadays are using mathematics
more than one thinks.
>[snip]
>> It's more likely that people who cannot grasp algebra are limited in
>> "developing critical thinking skills" because they are not that
>> smart..
>[snip]
>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.
Complex written do***ents are usually much easier to read
and understand if a fair amount of mathematical notation,
and "mathematical" logic, are used to get through the
verbiage. How can one think critically if one cannot at
least use the part of logic which we understand.
Also, I suspect that inductive logic will usually be needed.
This IS statistics, and requires not only algebra, but an
understanding, not the ability to compute, probability and
statistics. The concepts, not the manipulations, need to be
understood, and my decades of teaching have convinced me that
learning manipulation makes it harder to learn concepts. One
has to discard the structure one has learned.
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
hrubin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
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