Re: Don't Call It "Algebra"; Call It Something Warm And Fuzzy

"Pubkeybreaker" <pubkeybreaker@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:20e2a46d-92aa-40ba-a42a-3143bc0d936e@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Jul 10, 12:31 pm, Barbara <mom_2_...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Jul 10, 9:41 am, hru...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Herman Rubin) wrote:
>
>

> Of course, the answer is not to re-name the subject. Rather, the
> answer is to show the students that algebra isn't that difficult.
>

My general suspicion is that the phenomenon isn't unique to 'algebra'.
I suspect that the students afraid of 'algebra' are also afraid of
'physics', 'chemistry', 'literature'... etc.   They are afraid of
any subject that requires that they <gasp!>  might have to study
in order to learn.  Too many are simply intellectually LAZY.
---

What I find humorous is that I was in a teaching store the other day, and 
saw a series of books starting at 1st grade, labeled "Algebra" (which
looked 
to me like reasonable extention activities for a child who had a good
grasp 
on basic operations, but nothing that hasn't been taught in math cl*****
at 
that age level, at least to the higher groups, for decades). So,
apparently 
the word Algebra is considered too scary for high school kids to have on a

book, but not for a 6 yr old!