Too Much Algebra

Extract

Mathematics has for so long had an honoured place in the curriculum that teachers have expanded the essentials of elementary algebra, and have brought in excessive manipulation, without considering its value or whether it is needed. They have lost sight of the objects of their teaching and have allowed manipulation, of a type comparable to a difficult cross-word puzzle, to creep in. This may satisfy the puzzle instinct of a few of the more intelligent pupils but certainly causes much heart-burning to the average pupil with little distinctive mathematical ability. We should, then, from time to time review the objects of our teaching, and not only our methods, and then examine the contents of the curriculum and discard those parts which are unnecessary, and replace by mathematics which is more value.