There is something terribly wrong with our public school system when many high school graduates cannot read or write well enough to take regular college classes. That’s why our junior (community) colleges have to start off many first-time students in Remedial English and Remedial Math courses.
Dennis Vail is a Beaumont, Texas high school teacher. He submitted a letter to the Houston Chronicle which was published in its May 9 edition. He was responding to an April 10 article in the Chronicle on Algebra II. Here is Mr. Vail’s remarkable letter:
ALGEBRA AND IQ
I have taught high school math for a number of years and have found that as a rule of thumb, students with IQs much less than 90 will have a very difficult time comprehending Algebra I, let alone Algebra II.
The sample problems given in the article are far beyond their capability.
It would be much better to offer them courses that they can really use, like consumer math and business math, rather than trying to teach them algebra, which is essentially a hopeless effort and merely has the effect of frustrating them and slowing the progress of the other students who are capable of mastering the material.
Dennis Vail
Beaumont
I don’t know who ever came up with the notion that every high school student should go on to get a college degree, but both the Bush and Obama administrations based their education programs on that goal. That goal is absolutely absurd. It trashes the idea that a college degree is something special.
Many, if not most, high school students are just not college material and never will be unless the colleges lower their standards even further than they already have. Besides that, if everyone had a college degree, that degree would be no more valuable than a high school diploma.
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