California college chancellor wants to abolish algebra requirement, calls it a ‘civil rights issue’

[rangerrebew]

California college chancellor wants to abolish algebra requirement, calls it a ‘civil rights issue’
July 21, 2017 | BPR Wire | Print Article   
 

DCNFRob Shimshock, DCNF

The chancellor of California’s community college system said he wants to abolish the college algebra requirement and called it a “civil rights issue” in a Wednesday interview.

Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of California Community Colleges, made the argument while speaking with NPR. He pegged algebra as overly burdensome due to the disproportionate rate at which it prevents students from graduating from community colleges; nearly 50 percent of community college students do not complete their math requirement.

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2017/07/21/california-college-chancellor-wants-abolish-algebra-requirement-calls-civil-rights-issue-516231

[rangerrebew]

I've got a better idea.  Mejifornia should abolish ALL classes because, in one way or another, they are all racist or a civil rights issue.  Then give each high school recipient (notice I didn't say graduate) of a time in class diploma, a degree from the Mejifornia college system.  Now you say but they won't have learned anything but that is exactly what will happen when all these classes are cancelled for one progressive reason or another.  Then all the professors and other employees of universities and colleges could be sent packing and the state would save a bundle they could put into more welfare programs.  Then sell all the building and property to get even more money for welfare programs.  What a great place it would be.

[ABX]

I had pre-Algebra in middleschool. Now it is being considered too difficult for college? Sheesh..

[Joe Wooten]

I had pre-Algebra in middleschool. Now it is being considered too difficult for college? Sheesh..

Yep. Another indictment on our public school system.

[thackney]

Yep. Another indictment on our public school system.

Don't equate all public schools with urban hell-holes.

My kids had algebra in middle school just a couple years ago.

[GrouchoTex]

Learning Algebra, or at least the attempt to, develops problem solving skills, which are useful, no matter who you are.
BTW, wasn't it the middle east that started Algebra?
How ironic, if this is the case?

[GrouchoTex]

FYI:

From Wikipedia:

The word algebra comes from the Arabic الجبر (al-jabr lit. "the reunion of broken parts") from the title of the book Ilm al-jabr wa'l-muḳābala by Persian mathematician and astronomer al-Khwarizmi. The word entered the English language during the fifteenth century, from either Spanish, Italian, or Medieval Latin. It originally referred to the surgical procedure of setting broken or dislocated bones. The mathematical meaning was first recorded in the sixteenth century.[5]

So banning Algebra would be Islamophobic, right?

Someone might want to tell Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of California Community Colleges, before he makes an even bigger fool of himself.

[catfish1957]

Need urban algebra so that the thugs can calculate  the symmetry when they paint the side of rail cars..

[truth_seeker]

1. Like most of their claimed knowledge, the arabs largely ripped it off from the Greeks.

2. Otherwise, it is about a certain minority/minorities, dat don't do maffs so good.

(whites and Asians CAN DO math)

[XenaLee]

California college chancellor wants to abolish algebra requirement, calls it a ‘civil rights issue’
July 21, 2017 | BPR Wire | Print Article   
 

DCNFRob Shimshock, DCNF

The chancellor of California’s community college system said he wants to abolish the college algebra requirement and called it a “civil rights issue” in a Wednesday interview.

Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of California Community Colleges, made the argument while speaking with NPR. He pegged algebra as overly burdensome due to the disproportionate rate at which it prevents students from graduating from community colleges; nearly 50 percent of community college students do not complete their math requirement.

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2017/07/21/california-college-chancellor-wants-abolish-algebra-requirement-calls-civil-rights-issue-516231

Well... they could always substitute algebra with basket weaving and finger painting.  You know.....crafts.  Stuff the delicate liberals will much prefer.  And the world will be a much better, more beautiful place with an entire state focusing on their 'art'.  While they're at it.... they should just throw out teaching English.  It's too hard and not worth the effort.

[Wingnut]

Numbers are hard . 

[Joe Wooten]

Don't equate all public schools with urban hell-holes.

My kids had algebra in middle school just a couple years ago.

So far, all the public schools I've seen here in Illinoisy have deteriorated badly in standards. The Cook County dhimmicraps have been busy moving the denizens of the south and west sides out into the 'burbs and further, which then creates a demand to relax standards because the new kids cannot handle the work. Common Core just makes it even worse. WE sent our kids through the Catholic school system, and even it has deteriorated significantly in the last 10 years.

[truth_seeker]

But whenever "The Bell Curve" was mentioned here in the past, "powers-that-be" have shut down, any "free speech," about different aptitudes between the races.

Over 100 years of scientific testing out the window, replaced with political correctness.

[Oceander]

But whenever "The Bell Curve" was mentioned here in the past, "powers-that-be" have shut down, any "free speech," about different aptitudes between the races.

Over 100 years of scientific testing out the window, replaced with political correctness.

Because it has to do with culture, which is not inherent, and nothing to do with genes, which are inherent. 

[Oceander]

FYI:

From Wikipedia:

The word algebra comes from the Arabic الجبر (al-jabr lit. "the reunion of broken parts") from the title of the book Ilm al-jabr wa'l-muḳābala by Persian mathematician and astronomer al-Khwarizmi. The word entered the English language during the fifteenth century, from either Spanish, Italian, or Medieval Latin. It originally referred to the surgical procedure of setting broken or dislocated bones. The mathematical meaning was first recorded in the sixteenth century.[5]

So banning Algebra would be Islamophobic, right?

Someone might want to tell Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of California Community Colleges, before he makes an even bigger fool of himself.

Good point!!!!!

[truth_seeker]

Because it has to do with culture, which is not inherent, and nothing to do with genes, which are inherent.

Your opinion is certainly the politically correct one. (like human caused global warming)

It follows from YOUR opinion, that all the money spent, and reliance thereon,  by schools and the military on IQ testing, is futile when it comes to " some cultures."

I guess the answer will be more affirmative action.

[Oceander]

Your opinion is certainly the politically correct one. (like human caused global warming)

It follows from YOUR opinion, that all the money spent, and reliance thereon,  by schools and the military on IQ testing, is futile when it comes to " some cultures."

I guess the answer will be more affirmative action.

In a word, nope.  You're addressing the vacuous straw men in your head, not me or anyone who disagrees with your racism. 

[guitar4jesus]

Because it has to do with culture, which is not inherent, and nothing to do with genes, which are inherent.

QFT

[truth_seeker]

In a word, nope.  You're addressing the vacuous straw men in your head, not me or anyone who disagrees with your racism.

Which part of the law school curriculum should be dropped, to accommodate minority students? Constitutional law, writing, contracts?

Critics of the book, are mainly liberal psychology professors, btw. e.g. a profession soft on science, and big on "feel goodness."

As in rewards for participation, the current trend to let the student-inmates, take over running the school-asylum, with the white-guilt children in solidarity with the black lives matter types.

[The_Reader_David]

Actually, I'm in favor of abolishing college and university level algebra requirements, provided there is still a mathematics requirement for graduation.

By and large "college algebra" (by which is meant high school algebra taught at a college or university) is the least edifying mathematics course one could require students pursuing a bachelors (or associates) degree to take, and is useful only if their majors will actually require them to do algebraic calculations.  It would be far better to have a mathematics requirement that can be fulfilled by taking a course in computer programming (in which one actually learns to write code to a level that implements interesting algorithms), a course in symbolic logic, a course in plane geometry (the old way with compass and straight-edge constructions and proofs), a calculus course, or a "math for poets" course that introduces interesting uses and applications of mathematics intended to engage the interests of people who don't need calculation beyond basic arithmetic in their major.  (There is a whiz-bang version of this last taught not for poets but for artists at the School of the Chicago Art Institute by Eugenia Cheng using her wonderful book How to Bake Pi as a text -- though personally, I prefer the original title it was published under in the UK, Cakes, Custard and Category Theory.)

Full disclosure:  I'm a professor of mathematics at a large midwestern state university.