<story><title>California moves to recommend delaying algebra to 9th grade statewide</title><url>https://sfstandard.com/controversy-rages-as-california-follows-sfs-lead-with-new-approach-to-teaching-math/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>moksly</author><text>I’m Danish and not at all interested in the politics of it, but there can be a case for teaching algebra late. We do it in Denmark, because it’s the subject children have the hardest time learning, and having too many of them fail too early kills their interest in math. We still teach algebra in grade 7-9, but we’ve gone through the social experiments of teaching it at different ages, and have lost entire generations because it was taught too soon.&lt;p&gt;I don’t think social justice or equality should play a part of the argument, but it’s always hard to tell where the legislation ends and the propaganda begins these days, and I’m honestly no interested enough to read the 800 page document this article is about.&lt;p&gt;I will say, however, that I think we’re going to have problems teaching math until we reform the school system to be suited for the modern world instead of the early 1900’s “assembly line” society. It makes no sense to place children in classes based on their age, and certainly not for all subjects.&lt;p&gt;The result is always going to be that both slow and brilliant students get fucked over, in a myriad of ways, especially if they are a mix of good and bad at different subjects.&lt;p&gt;Why exactly is it that you aren’t taught courses like math, or history or language according to your ability instead of your age?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>anchpop</author><text>There was an informal study done in the early 20th century, where a superintendent decided he didn’t think math was that useful and told the 4 poorest elementary schools in his district to stop teaching it. (He chose the poorest schools because he knew the parents wouldn’t put up as much of a fuss as at the wealthier schools.) They still taught how to count, read clocks, and make change, but besides that they had no formal math instruction. They used the extra time to read as a class IIRC.&lt;p&gt;The result was that, despite lacking 6 years of formal math education, the students in that district were only one year behind the other students when they went to junior high. That is, they were able to recover all six years of missed elementary school math education in one year of junior high. And in the superintendent’s opinion, those students were better at critical thinking and were able to solve some problems their better-educated counterparts were not. I can find the link if anyone is interested.&lt;p&gt;Basically, it seems like kid’s brains are just not able to efficiently learn math. I know I could learn math concepts now that would have taken me much longer in highschool. I kind of wish we would just let kids be kids for more of their lives</text></comment>
<story><title>California moves to recommend delaying algebra to 9th grade statewide</title><url>https://sfstandard.com/controversy-rages-as-california-follows-sfs-lead-with-new-approach-to-teaching-math/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>moksly</author><text>I’m Danish and not at all interested in the politics of it, but there can be a case for teaching algebra late. We do it in Denmark, because it’s the subject children have the hardest time learning, and having too many of them fail too early kills their interest in math. We still teach algebra in grade 7-9, but we’ve gone through the social experiments of teaching it at different ages, and have lost entire generations because it was taught too soon.&lt;p&gt;I don’t think social justice or equality should play a part of the argument, but it’s always hard to tell where the legislation ends and the propaganda begins these days, and I’m honestly no interested enough to read the 800 page document this article is about.&lt;p&gt;I will say, however, that I think we’re going to have problems teaching math until we reform the school system to be suited for the modern world instead of the early 1900’s “assembly line” society. It makes no sense to place children in classes based on their age, and certainly not for all subjects.&lt;p&gt;The result is always going to be that both slow and brilliant students get fucked over, in a myriad of ways, especially if they are a mix of good and bad at different subjects.&lt;p&gt;Why exactly is it that you aren’t taught courses like math, or history or language according to your ability instead of your age?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eggy</author><text>I am a big proponent of getting rid of the age-segregation as is it is now and widening the age range, but I&amp;#x27;d like to see a citation on Denmark teaching Algebra later and the data on this. I read turn-of-the century math books that are years ahead in rigor and subject matter, and that seemed to fare well. There was a lot of stigmatizing of AP classes by the great &amp;quot;equalizers&amp;quot;, but let the kids who can excel, excel. I am not at all a believer the &amp;quot;leave no child behind&amp;quot; philosophy. Even college-educated kids we hire now seem to be behind the group just 5 to 10 years younger in common sense, math, writing, history, and problem-solving skills, at least in the interviews I have given over the past 15 to 20 years. The odd superstar shows once in a while, but they will always thrive in any situation. Personally, I grew up with a lot against me, but I pushed and was pretty much self-taught, and I like to think I did good. I don&amp;#x27;t believe in trying to administer or legislate intelligence. Instant facts from Google does not equate to knowledge and wisdom.</text></comment>