They ignore the fact that the degree is supposed to be a proof of "This person has X skillsets at minimum". It no longer is. There is basically no job in the United States that cares if you have a high school diploma or GED other than government jobs. They are repeating this process with College right now. The College Diploma is now the new High School Diploma, and pretty soon jobs are gonna want Masters or Doctorates for entry level.
This is a bad belief, they don't (or won't) understand that they are ruining and devaluing a thing by their actions and beliefs.
Yes pretty much every college requires "college algebra". But some schools have "college algebra for stem majors" vs "college algebra for non stem majors". Guess which one is easier, has lots of bonus credit and extra curricular stuff to earn extra credit. (You attended the college showing of "vagely related math movie?! Here's 10 points on your final!") And also grades on a curve. Also you only need 69.5 (and sometimes just a D!) to graduate.
There's also other cheats/hacks. Like lots of state schools will let you transfer from a community college with credit for your "core courses", and some of those have questionable standards. There's also the fact that college algebra usually has some kind of test out or online option. There was a whole sub industry of "pay you to take the online test for me" at colleges for stuff like college algebra. Some of those courses did have some kind "you have to take 1 test in person so we know its you" rule. But they didnt check super heavily that you were actually that person other than a cursory examination of your drivers license name matched who was supposed to take the test. (and oh boy let me tell you about how covid and masks interacted with all of that)
Dont get me started on the "Statistics for Sociology" that was different than actual "Statistics" (but fulfilled the Stats requirement for the degree)
This is also ignoring that taking College Algebra to begin with IN COLLEGE. Was a major sign you were not a Stem Major. Stem Majors took that in high school and were taking at minimum precalculus. (and even that was viewed as the slow lane, you should be talking Calc 1 as a red blooded STEM freshman)
An acquaintance asked me if she should take "Calculus for Artists" after I suggested she take a calculus course. I laughed, and said that such a course should be named "Pretend to Learn Calculus". She should take a real calculus course, which she did, and did well in it.
If you're in college, stick to the real math classes, not the "math for losers who are forced to take a math class". You'll be with other students who want to learn math, and you'll have a prof that wants to teach math (the loser math course has a prof who doesn't want to be there, either). It'll be a much more pleasant experience.
Hey, if I was running a college, I'd have the two track math system, too. That way the students who want to learn won't be bothered by the ones who don't.
Was that based on actual knowledge of the course content?
It's like "Flight School for Artists". There's no such thing.
dae STEM has got to be one of the most exhausting memes on the internet. Hell, I’m 3/4 of the letters and even I find this aspect of our culture insufferable.
E.g., there can be a course on compilers that teaches automata theory. There can also be a course that just jumps in and codes a compiler. Both courses teach different, but valuable skills. Now, having a course “Compiler for Artists” where you’re taught such useful gems as “a compiler translates between human-level languages and machine code,” not so much.
Both have their place.
So, yeah, in the real world, it doesn't work out so good.
I eventually learned to appreciate that Caltech never taught how to use formulas, but instead taught where the formulas came from. I recall a class on jet engines (really, an awesome class!), where the prof spent the entire lecture deriving the formula for a jet engine's performance. It was breathtaking. I knew where every term came from. I finally understood how the damned thing worked. All those other handwavy explanations mystified me.
If I was just handed the formula, it wouldn't have meant much of anything to me.
- get you used to the general feel of the topic
- make you practice proving things
The specific theorems students prove are not really the point.
Right, that's why they should skip the calculus and start students directly on Real analysis. Then they might actually have some use for what they prove in the class.
Caltech didn't. In fact, they expect you to know calculus before entering. I didn't, and that nearly capsized my college career before it left the dock.
Sad to hear that. It suggests their admissions process has succumbed. When I attended, it was very rare for the admissions people to admit someone who couldn't do the work. I only knew one who couldn't.
Colleges should only admit those who pledge themselves to the Guild of Software Engineering at 13, so we can keep the noble profession of building CRUD apps in JavaScript free of riffraff.
The calculus requirement was not listed as an admissions requirement. The other students were astonished that I didn't simply assume it was required.
Fortunately, physics prof Ricardo Gomez invited me to his office for some impromptu calculus tutoring, which saved my bacon. I owe him.
This does not in any way imply that those should be the only kind of places to exist.
This does not in any way imply that there's anything wrong with people who started to recently to have relevant background.
We also do split students as early as after the 4th year (end of elementary school) in three different school systems with about 50% of students attending the highest university track tier. The other two tiers might not have calculus or only in a limited form, but also don't qualify for university without further education. Thus setting students on different paths based on ability/performance early on seems very natural to me. Students always can up/downgrade schools based on performance at any year later on.
For cheating we proctor all of the tests, which are worth by far the highest portion of the grade. I’m sure people have cheated on the proctored tests, but there’s not rampant purchasing of passing grades. This is specifically to rebut your implication that students are cheating or being carried by the grading structure, not necessarily to discount your position in the overall discussion.
It was well known there was a side hustle for some of that. And certain proctors would at times be told to drop it if they pressed. It was notoriously an issue with the non english speaking population. They would show up with an id that was clearly not them, proctors would be told to just let them take the test, same student would still be at classes months later. Though to be fair foreign students and schools chasing that money is probably its own kettle of fish.
That's probably true. But there's just not much that you can do to teach years of junior high and high school math in a single college class, to students who never got the chance to seriously engage with that material because their school replaced actual math courses with this new "data science" thing (or for countless other reasons which would fully apply even today). "Weedout course" might not be the intention, but it's definitely the real-world outcome.
I don't have a specific comment on the policy under discussion, I'm not a californian and I'm not familiar with the specifics - but telling people "You'll be fine without a degree" isn't going to go over well and, honestly, is asking the recipient to accept a large risk regarding their future while you, an employed person, have already passed that hurdle. American colleges definitely have issues with over enrollment but even if wanting that state is a "bad belief", it's certainly an accurate belief.
I don't disagree at all that it's mostly BS, but, much like the stock market, it is functioning primarily on the social valuation - and currently degrees are seen as close to a necessity to enter the job market.
1. The only thing I've seen on this front is some advertising for trades work which can pay equal or better to non-SF software engineers.
The boss of my first internship at Cisco majored in Geology.
[0]: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Stanford-professor-Ka...
A lot of students in the US learn physics without calculus, which is basically useless. It's just a set of magic formulae to plug and chug. We should not go further in that direction but instead go in the other direction.
I have an issue with the parent's gossipy put-down of Professor Boaler.
I think it's important to emphasize that genuine intellectuals who have put serious thought into this proposal support it. I would prefer more serious engagement with it, even if on HN the majority disagree.
It’s an account of how a very diverse group of scholars advising the United Nations ignored research contradicted their ideological views.
One of the scholars even admitted in private some of their recommendations were “wrong.”
The group was chosen for its expertise and diversity.
I’ve served on school boards. They’re heavily susceptible to group think.
Once the culture wars get involved, peoples minds turn off.
There is however a very broad movement of people who believe that unequal outcomes are a manifestation of racism and so they act accordingly in their roles in government etc..
Many of these people are in the civil service and so this will influence their view.
It would be 'insane' to ignore this movement, it's one of the most powerful social forces in the US right now.
But even conceding that racism is the dominant factor in performance differences, the framework proposed here is plain ridiculous. In essence, what they’re advocating is that because disadvantaged groups underperform in advanced math, advanced math should be scrapped altogether in public schools. The effect of this will be to handicap disadvantaged groups even further, as they’re less likely to attend private school or have access to private tutoring, and thus will be locked out of advanced math entirely while advantages groups continue to receive advanced math instruction in private schools.
Since I have no such 'scientific racism' views and claims of 'proto-fascism' are ridiculous at face value ...
... that a common person would take some rather mundane comment somewhere to mean those things, implies that they've been radicalized in some way in the manner that I've described.
"Racists is everywhere, under my bed, in the jingle for that product, in our schools! Math is racist! We Need Action Now!"
'Anti Racism' is a reasonable concept at face value, but the issue has obviously created groups of wayward ideologues in large swaths in the US, who are more likely than not to be involved in the civil service, particularly in education.
Since 'improving education' is a perennial issue of contention anyhow - if we throw 'math is racist' into the fire, along with legions (at least a critical mass) of fervent supporters - and then finally allow the hollow politicians and media to misrepresent and aggrandize all of it in bad faith (votes, money, attention, power etc.) ... then we have yet another toxic cocktail of public malaise and dysfunction distracting us from dealing with the core issues.
> Many of these people are in the civil service and so this will influence their view.
It influences the political pressures placed on people in the civil service more than anything else. People in the civil service are in the civil service for a long time, typically. Often they are in the civil service for decades. On the other hand, elected officials and political appointees rotate in and out much more quickly.
I know people in the civil service, they have a much more long-term and level-headed view of things, and my impression is that they "weather the storm" of changing political pressures. At least, the ones who survive in the job do. Political appointees and elected officials are much more mercurial. Appointees know that their position is (somewhat) an extension of their own political power to begin with.
Christians are fond if it: "You have an innate, direct relationship with God, in his eyes you are equal to the The King" etc..
But we've only had 'governance' in the broad sense for 100 years.
And we've never really tried to apply such principles into education until the 1960s.
Now we have actually made incredible progress on social issues, we have our 'wars' in Social Media with Holy Anti Racism Fanatics trying to do their best - because 'racism is bad' - which of course it is - and 'systematic racism exists' - which of course it does - but the 'kernel of truth' of these issues drives people into ideological fervour as though it's some giant overwhelming issue, when really it's not. Racism is still pernicious, but it's not fundamental.
And FYI don't think it's all rubbish.
For example - 'Math' is heavily based on prerequisites. If you 'fall back' in Grade 4, you may never be able to 'catch up'. While that's true in general, it's not as acute as in math.
Poor kids might be far more likely to 'fall of the bandwagon' and a lot of poverty might be due to systematic racism, and so the 'Hard Requirements' for certain things may not be ideal.
You could have 'summer school' or 'after school' or 'accelerated catch up' programs.
Those would be 'reasonable' solutions in my view - and FYI these are mostly issues of poverty, not race, they are couched as racial issues because that's what fires people up.
Edit: and yes, I agree 'most people in the civil service' are level-headed. Most people actually are. But some groups have outsized voices, amplified by 'allies' elsewhere.
The 'Anti Racism Agenda' is a 'fundamental pillar', like a religion, of 25% of the US population, and they are pretty active about it. And the actions of the most extreme 5% end up really upsetting other people. Much like a very powerful fool using made up constitutional manoeuvres to try to take over the government would upset a lot of people as well.
Good intentions, surely, but that doesn't make them right.
How did you reach this conclusion in the face of 300+ years of verifiable, well-documented federal, state and local racist legislation and policies? If it’s pernicious now then it’s always been pernicious since generations have persevered irregardless of these policies… but that doesn’t make sense to me.
Systematic racism only exists today to positively discriminate against people belonging to so-called disadvantaged races, at the expense of those belonging to so-called privileged races. That's why White and Asian kids are discriminated against in college admissions.
Shitty taxation policies fuck all new home owners and have little to do with race.
I assume your example is talking about Prop 58. [1] Is Prop 58 racist? Of course not, the CA Constitution prohibits racist and sexist laws and the courts are very good at enforcing that prohibition.
Prop 58 means a lower property tax bill can be inherited by the children with the property. By your reasoning, isn’t allowing property inheritance at all racist?
To me this is a meaningless injection of “equity” into a discussion on equality. Racism is not a word that means “inequity” - as in - everyone not consuming, producing, contributing, and owning the exact same quanta. That of course is a bizarre fiction.
We are talking about a tax policy which generationally preserves a tax break. It had a meaningful basis in law and policy which does not discriminate based on race, but it certainly provides a significant tax benefit to generational land owners.
Now again, that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the Federal estate tax lifetime exclusion amount, which provides orders of magnitudes greater tax benefits to preserving generational wealth, so Prop 58 is just a bit player in this scheme.
If the argument is that a tax policy which is advantageous to anyone with generational wealth is “systemically racist” then I think the argument has gone off the rails.
There are important justifiable public policy goals to ensuring a certainly level of generational wealth. There is no and never will be an important justifiable public policy goal of being “racist”.
If someone wants to argue for wealth confiscation, redistribution, and equity (e.g. some form of communism) then by all means give it a shot. But I don’t abide calling people racists if they disagree with that as a policy goal. If the argument is “merely” that there should be no tax benefit which preserves generational wealth, you actually immediately end up in exactly the same place.
The answer is of course more likely along the lines of “we do both”. We have policies that provide for protecting and maintaining a certainly level of generational wealth. And we also have policies which provide a massive welfare system for people without any generational wealth.
As to estate tax exemptions, they aren't nearly as egregious. There can certainly be an argument for reparations of ill-gotten gains to level the playing field, but it's at least possible for me to accumulate wealth myself and pass it on to my children. In contrast, it's simply impossible for me to acquire and pass on the same property tax rate that my white neighbors have.
I think saying you can’t go back in time and capitalize on an investment 60 years ago that also comes with an accrued property tax advantage is true, but has nothing to do with race. Anyone can start accruing their own tax advantaged status under the exact same Proposition, and no one can ever try to take it away from them on the basis of a protected trait, right?
I guess what I’m asking is, is there anything specific about this tax policy that accrues benefits to a historical capital investment which makes it “racist” over any other tax policy that accrues benefits based on historical capital investment?
There are so many race neutral policies that provide accrued benefits like this. Even social security benefits accrue based on historical wages. But also things like Roth IRAs which provide compounded tax free growth. You can’t contribute the same dollars today to a Roth IRA and get the same tax advantages as someone who contributed the same amount but over the last 60 years, the benefit can only accrue over time, just like the CA property tax benefit can only accrue over time.
Not everyone pays the same tax rate on their income or their property, nor are they provided the same level of government benefits. In many cases that tax rate or benefit level will be based on historical personal or family wealth. Often times it works out to be a progressive tax, sometimes it’s regressive depending on so many policy goals that are often in conflict with each other.
Simply put, any of your neighbors who have owned their (family) property for several decades have accumulated a several thousand dollar a year tax benefit for being a long-time owner. You too can accrue a several thousand dollar a year tax benefit the longer that you hold your property. You don’t get to buy in and get that benefit on Day 1, and neither did they.
This can be trivially demonstrated: ten times more men are arrested and incarcerated than women, yet no one would claim this suggests the US criminal justice system is systemically sexist toward men.
watch “the news” or go on twitter
"The news" is dominated by organizations which are trying to maximize their social media engagement metrics so they can get more money from advertisers, so they're subject to the same forces that drive Twitter.
Neither of these sources reliably give you a picture of national affairs. Right now the best I can do is get a picture of local affairs by talking with people that I happen to encounter because I live near them.
Political pressure is a manifestation of the population's problems / beliefs / perceptions. It's wrong to bow completely to political pressure, but it's also wrong to ignore it.
If a political decision-making process concludes "men account for more road traffic deaths than women, but we've decided that gender can't be taken into account when pricing car insurance" that's fine; the facts have remained the facts, and a political decision has been made by a political process.
But if the same process concludes "men and women cause the same number of road traffic deaths" the process has gone off the rails despite the fact the outcome is the same because in one situation the facts have been acknowledged and the decision to act contrary to them made knowingly; while in the second situation that isn't the case.
It's not clear that this is the case. The "current approach" is to offer Algebra I in middle school, which ought to leave plenty of time for students who want to shape up in math and be prepared for HS calculus to do so. Push advanced math later in the curriculum, and you just expose the students to even higher-stakes dilemmas. Lowering standards is no solution, since you'll just end up with lower education quality for all students, that will make it even harder for them to catch up to reasonable levels. This is the broad background of OP's letter.
You don't have to write off entire groups of people - just the few at the top. They got there by sucking up to those who were already at the top. Everyone else just has to keep quiet if they want to keep their job. Worse, they're expected to express visible support for their "superiors" and their ideas if they want to keep their jobs.
What is being recommend is that no one take calculus in high school.
Both of these ideas are bad, but only one of them informs the California Math Framework.
It’s very commonly taught in 10th grade in France, Germany, Singapore and Taiwan (where I used to teach). It’s not universal by any means but as far as I can tell, the idea that calculus should be delayed until university is a nearly uniquely American idea.
https://www.mathvalues.org/masterblog/calculus-around-the-wo...
I can’t speak with certainty about other places but this directly contradicts my experience living most of the past 20 years in Taiwan (and speaking with friends who taught mathematics in the public school system).
Many, many people not on a STEM track learn calculus in high school.
Imho, 50% or more of students don’t even need to take algebra.
For that matter, that same number pretty much don’t even need to go to high school (although some sort of voluntary coop with practical skills training might be better than current high school or nothing).
HS is glorified baby sitting for most students. It sometimes is useful for people who want to go to “competitive” schools or enter stem fields in slightly less competitive schools.
As for your solution, learning math starting at algebra or pre-calc in a CC is fine if that is what the person needs for their chosen career path. I think the general idea is that the lack of calculus in high schools prunes the career path tree fairly aggressively in some relatively well-paid fields (esp. STEM).
I would never describe someone's beliefs as "circumstantial", and I would also never think of being on a committee as something "intrinsic".
These proposals come from committees and groups of people, and it's just not realistic to write off the entire group of people behind these proposals as having some uniform set of beliefs like that, especially when they give other rationales for the proposals!
The current school system makes decisions in middle school (8th grade and earlier) which determine whether or not each particular student will be able to take calculus in high school. This is, simply put, insane.
Because it's obviously insane, when you introduce questions of race and class into the mix, then it's easy to apply pressure to the department of education to come up with a proposal that changes things. And then you end up with bad proposals... why? Because these proposals are produced by poorly-shepherded committees full of government employees under political pressure, and it's much easier to come up with a bad proposal that responds to political pressure than it is to come up with a good proposal.
There's just no need to try and explain that this proposal is bad because the people who made it have bad beliefs. I'd characterize this as fundamental attribution error here... "the committees made a bad proposal because of wrong beliefs" versus "the committees made bad proposals because it's easier to respond to political pressure than to write a good proposal".