Should Maths be taught in School ????

[Lady's Human]

Most irritating story about math education goes to NYC. A couple days ago there was an article on education in NYC, and one school was unable to teach algebra because they didn't have the money to buy graphing calculators.

[mrspunkysmom]

Edit: After re-reading your post, I realize that the sad part is that these educator have gotten stuck in a tech rut and were probably relying on the calculator to help them teach. Done with Edit

Graphing calculators are not necessary to learn algebra. I learned Algebra using pencil paper, graph paper, and my brain.

They are nice, but not necessary. We have become lazy.

The other side of this coin - Who is responsible for the purchase of the calculators? The students will use these all four years of high school and beyond. Shouldn't they purchase or rent the calculator? I bought all of my calculators in college and they were not cheap then either. Although my calculators were used for a backup not the primary calculations.

Again we are back to entitlement and we have become lazy.

[smokey the elder]

LOL at the graphing calculators. Back when I took algebra calculators didn't even exist. "Four bangers" came out my junior year. I remember we were working with equations, and had to actually graph them by hand; some of the equations resulted in beautiful, elegant graphs. Working out the numbers and watching the curve develop is really quite satisfying to a geek like me.

[mrspunkysmom]

Oh, I so agree. My students act like I am subjecting them to cruel and unusual punishment to actually calculate the table values and hand-graph the function.

My mom bought me a four function calculator when I was in 8th grade. It actually worked more like an adding machine at that time . Enter two data values and instruct the calculator what to do. It cost a little more than $30 and I was actually faster in my head for the less complicated computations. It also had to be plugged in.

The funniest graphing calculator story for me. Late 90's and I was teaching Pre-Calculus for the first time. If you remember the old-fashioned way of calculating logarithms, you know where I am going. Finding the Base 10 logarithm of a number between 0 and 1 meant a negative exponent but the log tables were written for positive exponents. So 10^ (9.30103 -10) which is 0.2 actual value shows as -0.69897 on the modern calculator. The answers in the book were different and on the calculator. I had to go to another teacher and ask what the big deal was. I had already figured that out, but I needed confirmation. The class thought I was nuts.

I like the old method better. I think it shows the exponential relationships.

LOL at the graphing calculators. Back when I took algebra calculators didn't even exist. "Four bangers" came out my junior year. I remember we were working with equations, and had to actually graph them by hand; some of the equations resulted in beautiful, elegant graphs. Working out the numbers and watching the curve develop is really quite satisfying to a geek like me.

[Lady's Human]

You can buy one heck of a lot of graph paper and pencils for the cost of a high end graphing calc.

Just like teaching marksmanship......before you use a scope, you learn iron sights.

Get the basics down before introducing technology. There's no need for calculators in high school.