Who needs it?

There was an article in the Sunday New York Times called "Who Needs Algebra?" It's a provocative piece whose author is upset about how many students struggle with algebra in high school, even though algebra is never actually used in daily life. My understanding is that he wants to replace algebra and "hard" math with math that is more useful in daily life.

It's the continuation on a theme that starts in high school math class. Why do we need to learn this? a stubborn and slightly resentful student asks. When will we ever need this in real life? Then in college math, same story. (Mostly such students are trying to get out of an assignment.) Perhaps the same thing happens when a student takes their GRE. Finally, there is real life, where the student never sees another equation ever again.

It's true that upon taking their last steps out of their high school door, most people will never again have to solve for "x", ever, in their whole lives. It's also true that they will never again have to quote Shakespeare. They will never need to know what started the Second World War, or even who fought against whom. They won't need to know that humans are made out of cells, or even that there is such a thing as gravity pulling all objects closer together.

One could argue that most things one learns in high school have no practical application to daily life. There are people for whom high school is less suitable than, say, a trade school. They simply have less aptitude for intellectual achievement than for working with their hands. But does that mean that everyone should learn a trade rather than learn about English literature? Does that mean that we should do away with high school education all together?

I cannot in good conscience answer those questions in the positive. Learning English, History, Biology and Physics enriches you as a human being. There is beauty to be found in these subjects. And there is no less beauty to be found in Mathematics. Yes, even in Algebra. Perhaps, instead of doing away with these subjects, we should instead teach them so that students can see how beautiful and interesting they are.

I have had plenty of teachers who have taught each of these subjects badly. Taking their classes made me wonder about the point of it all. (It all seemed like a sort of grade factory- you turned in some meaningless pieces of work, you got grades, and if you got good grades, you went to college.) But sometimes there were good teachers. I've had good teachers, and professors, who brought their subject alive, and the question of why learn this? would never cross my mind. Never minding what subject it was, you learned because it was interesting. Because it formed you as a person. You could feel it. It's like that healthy feeling you get when you eat food that's both delicious and good for you.

I cannot give quantitative reasons why people should learn algebra. But I can ask why we must distinguish it from the other major subjects. Why do we demand that high school math be directly applicable, when we do not demand this of any other class? And why, instead of complaining that it is too difficult to learn, do we not try to teach it better?