New California math curriculum will hardly even teach math

Author: Math_Enthusiast

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This "math overhaul" is ridiculous. Sure, if students are struggling, we should make math more intuitive for them, but that doesn't me that we should dumb it down or even eliminate it. Firstly, the concept that gifted students can just be shoved in with struggling students and then learn the same "big ideas" at different levels will never work, and advanced students will only be held back. Speaking from personal experience, schools already love to find excuses to keep students who are gifted at math in the same classes as everyone else, and this would only make that issue worse. A student at calculus level and a student at algebra level will never be learning the same "big ideas," and trying to force this on them will only drag students down. If parents ask for their child to be place in a higher class, even if they have real evidence to back up the fact that their child is significantly advanced, they may simply be told that their child was already being taught at their level, even when they are being lumped in with average and even struggling students.  Secondly, this new curriculum will barely even teach math. The idea of keeping math in touch with reality has been taken too far. Students who end up actually pursuing a career in math will not be prepared for the abstract and theoretical. Moreover, this idea that there are "multiple roads" to calculus is ridiculous. If you want to learn calculus, you will need to understand algebra and trigonometry, not data science, computer science, or financial algebra. The topics of data science, computer science, and financial algebra aren't even topics in math! Data science and financial algebra are applications of math to business and economics, but they are by no means themselves areas of math, and working with computers will at best build some intuition for mathematical thinking in the form of coding, but computer science is not in and of itself math. (To be absolutely clear, theoretical computer science, which is the math behind the mechanisms of computation, is certainly an area of math, but this is at the very least college level, and between this and their focus on the real world, it is certainly not what is being referred to here.) Lastly, the example of a class activity given is especially concerning. Going on about how "everyone has their own strengths" and we are part of a "mathematical community" could possibly be somewhat inspiring, but is better suited for a team-building exercise, and not math class. This activity is a waste of time that will not do anything to improve mathematical intuition. That "mathematical community" won't help you if they're too busy drawing colorful lines to do actual math.
Best.Korea
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When will people learn that math shouldnt be taught at schools at all?
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The point of a school system from kindergarten and elementary to high school is to make students the slaves of government.

So I think math plays no role there. I think math should be removed. Math should be replaced by more suitable subjects, such as "proper thinking" and "thinking correct thoughts". 

That way, students will be better slaves of government. I think people could all put more effort so that their children become better slaves of the government.
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@Math_Enthusiast

  Well stated.