Is algebra necessary for college?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/is-algebra-necessary.html

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Of course, three years of high school math should be required for college and at least a year during college. It's literally impossible to understand modern natural or social science without at least algebra and statistics.

At the state college I formerly taught, students getting an "education" degree (the major was called liberal studies but it was only for future teachers) were exempt from the standard math requirements, and had their own math courses no other students were permitted to take.

I suppose this was on the principle that they only had to know as much math as an eighth grader. The result was that this university graduated students that knew less math than a student should have entering college. No doubt the idea of some EdD who couldn't do math either.

 

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Thank you!