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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Serious question, because I have always wondered. I can see how some amount of Algebra and geometry is useful the real world. Basic chemistry, biOlogy & physics I get. World history and English? Okay, sure. But unless you are in very specialized engineering, math or physics wtf do you do with Calculus in real life? Because I have a graduate degree and a pretty successful professional job, and can honestly say I have not thought about any Calculus concept ever since I walked out of my second semester calculus final exam. If college admissions weren't in play, I would never encourage anyone but a hardcore STEM kid to take AP Calc over AP stats (which can be very useful in the real world) or discrete math (also useful). So why is the FCPS gold standard for a bright, college bound kid now Calc BC plus a semester of Multivariable-- with the Calculus troll saying they need more?  Is there is some inherent value to Calculus for the 95% of people who don't think high level engineering or theoretical physics is their thing that I've just been missing out on my whole life?  Otherwise-- why???[/quote]

Totally, 100% agree.

The reality is that no colleges, outside of engineering programs and their ilk, expect calc in high school. Thousands of NoVa parents tell themselves colleges do, but every year thousands of kids are accepted to top colleges without calculus.[/quote]

Okay, let's clear this up. Taking Calculus in high school isn't special. So to say that you can get into college without taking calculus is saying that there's nothing special about going to college and getting a Bachelor's Degree, which I point-blank refuse to believe.[/quote]

Believe. Outside the tiger mom NOVA bubble and at you run of the mill GS 4 public HS, most kids do not take Calculus and only GT kids have an 8th grade Algebra option. Forget 7th. In my HS class of 110, we had 6 kids take Calculus.   You've been hanging around the TJ gunning tiger moms too d@mn long.  And a bachelor's degree isn't that special.  Something like what-- 1/3, 40% of the US population has one. Not the NOVA population, or Langley grads, the entire US population.   Which is much poorer, blacker, more Hispanic and less highly educated than the folks you apparently hang out with. A professional degree is an accomplishment. A PhD in many thing is down right special. A BA or BS-- for many URMs and fist generation college attendees, it's a huge accomplishment.  Nevertheless, very ordinary. [/quote]

This. At the public middle school where I used to teach in Wisconsin (GS 9, I'm pretty sure, and 80% to four year colleges at the HS it fed into) only a third of the kids were taking algebra ONE in eighth grade. There were maaaaybe 5 kids per year that took it as seventh graders. Everyone else took it as freshmen.

Algebra 1 in seventh grade is uncommon. So is taking calculus in high school.[/quote]

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