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Comment by nothercastle | Hacker News Reader

Meanwhile they introduce variables in 2nd grade and algebra isn’t a separate concept it’s simply how math is done. Every math concept and operation is slowly introduced with numbers then variables before moving on to the next concept. It’s a great way to do it in my opinion

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> they introduce variables in 2nd grade

you are not familiar with public education here. In one coastal city, more than 40 languages are spoken by students at home, with Spanish being a large component.

What I am saying is that 9th grade through 12th grade public standard curriculum is the topic of debate, with some groups, today, advocating removal of "advanced placement' courses in a broad way.

There is massive difference between certain particular schools, and the broad standardized, State-assigned curriculum.

Seattle? SF? Schools They are just suck but even adjacent functional districts don’t teach like that. The educational and conceptual math philosophy is simply different. Variables are really interesting at elementary school age because they really flush out when a student doesn’t understand the concept and allows the teacher or parent to correct it early. Numbers sometimes mask what’s going on and let students take shortcuts that hurt them later

This is true for most other countries. When I went to school before college, Math was just Math. There wasn't a Calculus or Algebra or Statistics class. You took Math and just did all of it in the Math class over the years, and you couldn't pick and choose. The distinctions only start in College. So everyone who graduated high school at least knew what each of these were about, even if they flat out flunked Math. I can't say how useful that was though.

Who is "they" here?

I use Russian School of Math as a proxy since their curriculum is supposedly based on former Soviet curriculum . They have a bunch of chapters on the west coast

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