OT: Algebra is a civil rights issue

Jimmy's Harborside for seafood can't be beat ;-) ...Jim Thompson

I can't believe you are asking that. I'm gobsmacked.

Normal laws of arithmetic as everybody (should be) taught in school. If you are "clever" you will ask where the brackets are, and I will say "no brackets".

Dunno about that, but I've had Sam Adams' product, and Dixie. I'm a fan of Sam Adams.

Because a functional member of society may have to INTERACT with random parts of the world around them. Recall the 'managers' at NASA who evaluated technical recommendations, and sent Challenger into the sky where it became a fireball. They made a decision on a matter outside their knowledge. They didn't intend to. That wasn't planned that way, it just happened.

Chernobyl, same story.

Water supply in Flint, MI, same story.

A good liberal education doesn't always hit the target, but a non-education always misses.

Most but clearly not all, can read too.

Or Women's Studiests.

Why should universities be the babysitters? OTOH, I think it would be great if the universities were on the hook for the student loans.

So are the people.

I would think that much of that could be done by the CAD system, these days. Sort of a mechanical version of LVS or DRC.

I taught at a local college for a few years. It was beer money but not much more. The IBM education department paid a lot more (did it a lot more years) and I taught on company time. ;-)

When I was teaching an IS course at a local college, I asked the dean if taught all the classes required for the degree, if I got the degree (it was a master's level course). He wasn't pleased.

Dixie was waving in the fields three weeks ago. I think somebody in Texas actually makes it now.

Abita makes some tasty beer. We like Purple Haze.

I don't think learning algebra would have helped any of these situations.

Good answers.

Mind you, many people in this group are also more than willing to make strong definite pronouncements on subjects that are outside their expertise.

Your statement was about more than algebra.

In any case, learning algebra forces you to understand that you need chains of steps to get to the answer, and that intuitive/emotional "reasoning" isn't sufficient.

Too many people think that "if I /want/ X enough, then X will happen", and that "if you didn't get X then you didn't try hard enough or were a bad person".

My statement was about learning skills that you won't use. Your examples don't actually cover that. They are examples of people making bad decisions. Not much overlap.

You talk to some weird people.

Tom Gardner wrote on 7/22/2017 4:41 AM:

Lol, you have my vote for understatement of the year!

Our aircraft mechanics used to be taught on mockups of engines and hydraulic systems, but now the classes are all simulations.

And how, precisely, can you *predict* which skills any given child will and won't use later in life?

There's an old Asmiov story that has stuck in my mind over the decades. It is worth speedreading, and illustrates some consequences of not learning more than you need. it is available at:

You are typing too fast. I didn't make those suggestions.

Not particularly.

But I read things I don't need to know about, and watch some TV. Some American TV exemplifies those attitudes, e.g. contestants encouraged by The Orange Lord om his TV programme.

Teaching at companies is often much less problematic. No stupid credential requirements, no union strangleholds and they pay the regular rate without flinching. Sometimes it was "old stuff". For example, I was surprised that none of the EEs at one company knew how to do impedance matching via Smith Chart. "You mean you did that job with just a piece of paper?" ... "Yeah, and a compass". So they booked a lesson.

TSA didn't allow a compass to be in the carry-on so I had to quickly buy one after arrival, at night. A Walmart was still open and I bought a kids school compass for $0.99 plus tax. Surprisingly TSA was ok with that one on the way back.

The most interesting teaching situation was in South Korea. I had to limit my Englisch to words that were easy to understand and had to adapt to their accent a bit (and later unlearn that again). "Wot lieshe foh won glou in shiste?" -> "What is the reason to have only one ground in the system?".