Comment by LockeWatts | Hacker News Reader

Comment by LockeWatts | Hacker News Reader

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>I have found that a great many of the students have not mastered high school algebra.

Why should they have? It doesn't take 'mastery' to pass a class, it takes proficiency. Expecting perfection in all previous classes from students is silly.

>Many of the students aren't all that motivated, and resented me for asking a lot of them.

Are you teaching Math majors? If not, of course they aren't motivated. Most of them won't be using calculus in their daily life, they don't see it as valuable. Why should they, either, if nobody is presenting it's value?

Your post isn't a bad one, I just find a frustration with professors who forget sometimes that not everyone is interested in their subject. In an ideal world you would only teach people who want to learn your subject, but this is not an ideal world.

> If not, of course they aren't motivated. Most of them won't be using calculus in their daily life, they don't see it as valuable.

But that's my point, and I'm attempting to bolster the original article's point. I have a room full of calculus students, many of whom don't terribly need or want to learn calculus.

Then why are they there? In many cases you can trace this back to some ambition for which calculus is a prerequisite for some reason or other. But in many cases, they are there because they feel they are "supposed" to be there, or else they feel that a college degree will get them a better job.

Hence the concerns about a bubble.

>Then why are they there?

Because it's a state requirement, more than likely.

> In many cases you can trace this back to some ambition for which calculus is a prerequisite for some reason or other.

Doubtful. Not unless they're a STEM or Finance major.

> But in many cases, they are there because they feel they are "supposed" to be there, or else they feel that a college degree will get them a better job.

Your class isn't all of college. They are in your class because it's a requirement. Nothing more.

Just because they dislike like your class doesn't mean they shouldn't go to college.

>Doubtful. Not unless they're a STEM or Finance major.

You're just wrong about this. Introductory calc classes are some of the larger classes offered at a lot of universities.

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