A good way to get your blood pressure elevated is to read Richard Cohen’s opinion article in the Washington Post where he slams requirements for learning algebra in high school.
What I love about the article, though, is that he admits, right of the top, the following
I confess to be one of those people who hate math. I can do my basic arithmetic all right (although not percentages)…
Um, okay, so we just found out you can’t perform something so simple, fifth graders can do it, and we’re supposed to listen to what you are saying? Uhuh. Brilliant tactic there Mr. Cohen.
(And yes, the title is meant as a joke. Just because the Washington Post has one ignoramus does not imply that all journalists are braindead.)
I think it must be satire…carefully read the ridiculous “proof” that algebra does not teach reasoning. It’s either cleverly self-referential and self-contradicting, or pretty much brain dead.
If it’s satire, it’s way too subtle. I had to look back and read that sentence again:
“The proof of this, Gabriela, is all the people in my high school who were whizzes at math but did not know a thing about history and could not write a readable English sentence.”
Maybe he’ll argue this is a perfectly good sentence because anybody can understand it, but algebra is useless because some people can’t understand algebra.