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Comment by relaytheurgency | Hacker News Reader

I taught high school physics for a semester and the math abilities of these students (many considered top students) were abysmal. Somehow several of these students had received As and Bs in Algebra 2 but were unable to transform f = ma into a = f/m. They also had a very flawed understanding of how to solve quadratics.

I later realized that the issue is that mathematics is often taught as procedural. Students are taught a process (a set of steps to follow) that will take you from A to B. This works very well when you can remember all of the steps but if you forget one step you will always get the wrong answer. Almost none of these students could reason abstractly about the nature of the equations they were looking at. They could only refer to prior experiences following a sort of algebra recipe.

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I remember when I 'got' algebra. I was in 10th grade in Chem class. We were using mols = (mols/Volume)*Volume. For weeks, I had no idea what was going on. I just plain did not understand algebra whatsoever. But finally, at the end of a lab class where we actually mixed things and then found the concentrations and volumes, I finally figured out that these algebraic equations actually tied back into the real world. This was not for lack of trying on my part, my teacher's part, or the schools. I just plain did not understand. I think it was a developmental issue for me. I wasn't ready to chemo-mentally, therefore I just muddeled along frustrating everyone including myself.

I say this because I went on to get a BS in physics from a UC. Obviously I learned math very well later on. But in 9th grade, I was unable to learn anything harder than long division. I was a 'left-behind' child due to my brain. Nothing, I believe, could have helped me. Not all the tutoring in the world. My brain wasn't old enough then.

I was also a very poor math student in HS that went on to get a physics degree. I can say that it was the method of instruction as well as my own lack of motivation. Classes were boring and easy to pass even if you did not know the material. In my state you needed a 2.0 GPA to get into a state school. This is generally doable for even the worst students.

The lack of real consequences for not studying and doing homework played a huge role in my childhood academic experiences. I am often baffled when I hear reports of students who are over stressed by the requirements of high school academics. The standards seem now to be even lower than when I was in school yet students constantly complain that they can't keep up. It's mind boggling.

I believe it may have to do with a reverse bell-curve that seems to be prevalent in some areas. My High School was public and pretty good overall. However, we had basically 2 classes of people. The over-achievers and the under-achievers. The overs were on 3 varsity teams, had perfect grades, were on church youth group, Eagle scouts, etc all at once. The unders were high or drunk most classes. You pretty much were in AP classes or were getting D's; a reverse bell-curve. Now granted, this was a decade or more ago, but my little brother says its still the same mostly. But from this, I can understand the confusing narratives. You have some kids killing themselves [0](produced by one of the moms from the high school a hill over) and some kids with no future and they know it. Overs don't take classes with, play on teams with (due to GPA requirements), or hang out (if at all) with the Unders. Its tough to tease out a single statement because there are possibly 2 schools sandwiched on the same grounds.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_to_Nowhere

Well, surely more standardized testing will fix that right up.

Standardized testing isn't a meant to teach skills. It is meant to assess skills. No one is proposing that more standardized testing will teach students how to do mathematics.

If there is a better way to evaluate educational systems and educators, then it should become the minimum standard. I.e., it would still be "standardized testing". I don't know why that phrase became a thought-terminating cliché.

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