Learning Mathematics
Re “CSU to Help Santa Paula Students Make the Grade,” Sept. 30.
Trying to bring high school students’ math and writing abilities up to college level in one or two years is like putting a Band-aid on after major surgery without the stitches.
Several years ago I taught middle school math and science in Camarillo. I also am the parent of a high school sophomore and a college freshman. My daughter is taking remedial math and English at San Diego State University, although she graduated in the upper third of her class with a 3.5 GPA.
Our educational system in California subjected all of our kids to various math experiments: Math Renaissance in seventh and eighth grades and something called college preparatory mathematics in high school. This was a total fiasco.
Perhaps the biggest mistake is allowing our students to become calculator-dependent, starting as young as second and third grade.
We moved to “feel-good” education and “self-esteem above all else” at the expense of basic skills. Now these students, and our society, are paying the price.
CYNTHIA HORACEK, Oak Park
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