Craig Newmark’s recent post concerning renaming Algebra II, or Algebra-Trigonometry, “Problem Solving” called to mind another proposal I noticed recently—a brief lecture in which University of Pennsylvania mathematics professor Dennis DeTurck advocates eliminating fractions from the elementary school curriculum.
In the fifth grade, I learned how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. Although I took to it quickly, many of my classmates struggled. I’m confident that most of them eventually got it, and I’m grateful for having learned it, as well as having been challenged in a variety of ways at the age of 10, and throughout elementary school.
I worry that streamlining curricula may disadvantage students by failing to provide them with other methods of appreciating and using information. Witness the protracted and counterproductive battle between phonics-only proponents and whole-language–only proponents. Most early childhood educators today understand that teaching both yields the greatest results.
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