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Comment by jeffbee | Hacker News Reader

I feel like the facts are a little thin. It is not really true that "For decades, American math curriculum has followed a standard sequence: arithmetic, algebra, geometry, algebra II, precalculus and trigonometry, and calculus." That may have been the local condition in some places. The high school in my city does not have and has never had any named math course except calculus and statistics. Everything else is just "math". Common core math does not follow the given progression, either. 8th grade common core math has elements of algebra, geometry, and statistics and probability.

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That sequence was exactly what I had in northern Virginia in the early 2000s. If you think back, did your "math" teach approximately that same sequence?

For me, New England, early 10s the algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, precalc, calc was the exact pattern.

Edit: despite the name, pre calc was basically entirely trigonometry.

Same in NY.

And in rural Ohio, in the '90s.

And Illinois, early 2000s

Same in PA. I was a math major before switching to CS and this course order has defined mathematics in the US for 3 decades.

In the Texas in the 90s the math courses were: algebra, geometry, algebra II, precalculus and trigonometry, and calculus.

I can confirm. We had all of that at the small, rural Texas school I attended. My class of 17 produced two successful computer scientists, a college professor, and a Navy nuclear engineer, each of whom all went through that very curriculum.

Learning trigonometry so late makes zero sense. It should go geometry, trigonometry, then algebra, and so on.

you can't do that much trig without knowing basic algebra.

Same in SC.

My school system had a similar progression, though trig was on its own and you either took basic calc (essentially just limits and differentials) or AP calc, or a statistics-lite course that was basically "business math" for kids who weren't on a college track but might try for an associates degree or maybe community college. Though, arithmetic and algebra 1 were just called "math" (all pre-common-core, of course).

This was at a somewhat rural school in the Midwest, for what it is worth.

Pretty much everyone I know has gone thru this exact sequence of math courses, including myself.

My math curriculum in the 1970s/80s followed exactly that progression.

Same in the 90s in San Jose.

The CA and NY Common Core does follow that sequence even if the names don't match up exactly, and even if there's a sprinkling of geometry, statistics, or algebra mixed together in early math.

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