Letter 4: On Algebra

Dear No One, So there is something that I am sick of seeing and hearing about. Tell me if you’ve heard this: “I never learned about life in school”, “ instead of algebra they should teach you how to do taxes”, “ why am I reading these old stories how will this benefit me”; now look I’ll be the first one to agree that the education system we have is not the best. Still it is good when one reflects on how restricted education has been historically. But I’m am real tired of hearing all these complaints about the material schools teach. Specifically the constant berating of algebra as a useless subject. Let me just put this out there. Yes there are simpler ways to find the solutions to some algebraic problems. Yes it is rare that one will use algebra in daily life. In many ways it’s not practical in that this skill set will not be used whenever it can be applied. But that is not the real point. The real point of algebra is to learn about REASONING through a practical effort. Now for some people math comes easy, it’s a second language they can read right away. I was not nor am I one of those fortunately gifted. As a subject algebra was a struggle for me it was a different kind of thinking which I had to train myself into. That is the value of algebra, as a mental exercise which introduces to our minds a different way to think about the information in the world. Slope let’s you understand the concept of change over time. The ratio of those changes compared to each other. Abstracting from partial information to find a particular datum which could complete the picture. Of course it’s going to be hard you are hitting the mental gym. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t disagree with people when they talk about the need for a better emphasis on civic education. Teaching our citizens how to vote, pay taxes and about civil liberties is foundational for our nation. I’m fortunate in that the school I attended did teach these things and I showed up that day not missing the lesson. The fact that there are so many people who say they didn’t learn about things such as taxes speaks a difference in quality which is undeniable in the education system. But I also thinks that it speaks to the work ethic of the students as well. We all know that kids are not keyed to be at school all the time and often there in body but gone in mind. I know because I’m a person who likes school and daydreamed a lot. And that’s not to talk down on kids it’s hard to keep doing something you don’t really want to but have to do. I think this is why people hate algebra so much. It’s work that no one wants to do so they rally around the perceived uselessness of the subject. Really the take away from this thought stream is that things which seem useless or as mere chores can be a great source of training. There are a lot of things in life which are going to seem like pointless bumps in the road. But they don’t have to so. In every thing we can find an opportunity for growth and a reason to give great effort. The point is to focus on how the what were are doing in the present can help us be better for the next moment.