Meeting the Attacks on Algebra
No subject in the high school curriculum, according to some educators, has yielded such unsatisfactory results as Algebra. It has been the subject of most severe criticisms on all sides, and has been held responsible for a great deal of freshman mortality. A leading educator of Massachusetts, in one of his public speeches, has expressed the desire that less time should be devoted to the study of algebra in the high school. An influential body of educators has even gone so far as to ask some of our Massachusetts colleges to reduce their entrance requirements in algebra. We not only find educators loudly declaiming algebra; but this spirit of criticism has carried still farther. We know that many school children hate algebra because their parents hated it, or because other pupils have told them how uninteresting and difficult it is. Parents dread the time when their children must study algebra. In a magazine article of recent date, a father was discussing the education of his daughter. In the course of the, discussion he said that his daughter did not go to college because of her intense dislike of algebra.