Acing Algebra

The decision to introduce algebra to 8th grade students is a beacon of hope in the otherwise bleak K-12 public education system of California. Numerous studies have identified difficulties with algebra as one of the main reasons why high school and even college students were failing to graduate every year. By demanding early mastery in a discipline that Gov. Schwarzenegger called the “key that unlocks the world of science, innovation, engineering and technology,” California has taken a step in the right direction to support the demands of the knowledge-based economy of the 21st century.

Teaching at a community college can give one a sense of how unprepared students generally are in algebra when they graduate from high schools. I began teaching the subject as an adjunct faculty in a community college in northern California this spring. The elementary algebra course included the study of real numbers, linear equations, exponents, polynomials, factorization, quadratic equations, and rational expressions. The first week was revealing. Negative numbers, fractions and divisions, particularly those involving decimals, overwhelmed many students. Calculating something like 54 – (-12) baffled about a quarter of the student who subtracted 12 from 54 to produce a result of 42. Almost half the class was clueless about the order of arithmetic operations, and solved problems like 2 + 4(1/2 + 1/3) as 6(1/2 + 1/3) = 5. Something more complicated like 1/2 + 3/4[-2(1/4 + 5/12) + 3/5] threw almost the entire class off.

It took me an ordinate amount of time to cover the basics and shake off students’ fear of numbers and equations. However, once they sensed the power and beauty of algebra and its relevance, not just to their careers but also to such daily tasks as shopping and driving and lobbying for a cause on campus, they made rapid progress. Convincing them that I would be a patient and sympathetic teacher as long as they made a serious effort at learning algebra also helped.

Frank, floundering in fractions in the beginning, displayed fluency with factorization toward the end. Christina, shaky until spring break, suddenly began solving quadratic equations with ease. Paul, easily the oldest student in the class at 53, exuded confidence that after two attempts, he would pass algebra this time. A college degree that he had to postpone after graduating from high school in the ‘70s now appeared as a distinct possibility. "Everyone gets a second chance in America," was how he summarized his experience.

There was no denying that if the average student had a better foundation in algebra in middle and high schools, I could have made more progress and even delve into some exciting real-world applications before the semester ended.

During spring break, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel released a 120-page report that stated, “Although our students encounter difficulties with many aspects of mathematics, many observers of educational policy see algebra as a central concern. The sharp fall off in mathematics achievement in the U.S. begins when students reach late middle school, where, for more and more students, algebra course work begins …” Three words summarized the panel’s recommendation: “Focus on algebra.”

Yes, funding, teacher training, school resources and myriad other issues pose thorny problems to the vision of California’s State Board of Education. But by testing eighth-graders in algebra within three years and giving them a head-start to flourish in the knowledge-based global economy will more than justify the investments that must be made to the K-12 public education ecosystem of California. As a nation, to cite only one example, we simply cannot afford our fifteen-year-olds to rank 25th among 30 developed nations in math literacy and problem-solving, as the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) found.

Besides, lack of qualified teachers may not be as insurmountable a problem as is currently thought. The EnCorps Teacher Initiative in June of last year is attracting retiring baby boomers and other concerned Americans. Their expertise in algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, statistics, physics, chemistry, biology and computer science, honed in the trenches, is precisely what our students need to make these subjects become real for them in classrooms. Certainly the program needs to become more visible, flexible and rewarding but it is a good start.

Californians should support the State Board of Education’s initiative to help our students master the mystery of ‘x’ in algebra. And 8th grade is a great place to start.

Charging president Bashir of Sudan with Genocide

Finally! After 5 years of inaction by the international community, Sudanese president Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir has been charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), issued the charges after years of gathering evidences that were plain for all to see.

A predictable reaction followed: Charging Sudan’s president with genocide may cause him to commit even greater violence against Darfuris. It may worsen the plight of the surviving refugees. Aid may not reach them. The few peacekeepers may be thrown out of Sudan. And on and on.

What people forget is the brutal statistics on the ground. Over 2 million people have been killed, Muslims at the hands of Muslims, and there is no sign that the carnage will stop anytime soon. Unless president Bashir is convinced that his reign of terror must come to an end, he will continue to act with impunity. The ICC charges have put him on the defensive. That is a good sign.

What I found shocking was the general indifference of Muslims to the carnage in Darfur. While a cartoon could drive Muslims to frenzy, ethnic Muslims being slaughtered by the Muslim janjaweed militia, and actively supported by the Khartoum regime, hardly ruffled our feathers. In the five years of the Darfur genocide, I rarely heard a Friday sermon on it in my local mosques, nor came across any conference on the issue in the San Francisco Bay Area where I live.

President Bashir belongs to the same murderous group as Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic and Liberia’s Charles Taylor. The Hague charges offer hope to millions of Sudanese who may yet survive to experience a life devoid of violence and the constant fear of death. Making president Bashir and his associates accountable for their crimes is the surest way of preventing more genocide in the world.

P.S. June 22 - After 13 years of eluding capture, the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been arrested by the Serbian police on June 21. He is expected to be transferred to The Hague soon to stand trial for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered after Bosnian Serb forces seized the United Nations “safe area.” The long arm of International Law is finally reaching tyrants who commit genocide, mass murders and "ethnic cleansing" under their watch. In a world that often appears to be teetering on the brink of a catastrophe of one sort or another, the arrest of Karadzic offers hope that the center can indeed hold and that the best are the ones who are full of passionate intensity. The question now is, how long do we have to wait before Omar Bashir joins Mr. Karadzic in the Hague?

Thoreau and the Fourth of July

On July 4, 1845, Henry David Thoreau moved into a one-roomed cabin that he built with his own hands on the shore of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau wanted to "meet myself face to face," away from the intrusions of public opinion, government, religion, education and society. His twenty-six months of living in the woods provided him with materials for his masterpiece, Walden. The book is more bracing today than when it was first published and launched the environmental movement that we seem to take for granted.

But more than a paean to nature, Walden instructed us, by the example of its author, to live a meaningful life. It is this aspect of the book that explains its relevance and timelessness. Walden contains paradoxes and contradictions but precisely because of these, Thoreau's observations also ring so true. "I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men get clothing ... since ... the principal object is ... that the corporations may be enriched." "Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind." "The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveler's cap and all the monkeys in America do the same." "In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high."

Writing of farmers saddled with debt (magnified several thousand times since then, and not just farmers), Thoreau wrote: "With consummate skill he has set his trap with a hair springs to catch comfort and independence, and then, as he turned away got his own leg into it." "And when the farmer has got his house, he may not be the richer but the poorer for it, and it be the house that has got him." Is there any more powerful, and poignant, summary of the havoc wrought on families throughout America by subprime and exotic mortgages than what Thoreau observed of his neighbors in Concord over a century and a half ago?

Yet Thoreau would also have lauded the progress America has made since Walden. A fierce opponent of slavery, he would have approved where America is today in relation to race. The democratic nominee for the president of the United States today is an African-American with a heritage that spans the globe. And while our materialism and the often toxic popular culture would have saddened him, he would also have taken heart in the green movement begun by grassroots organizations to save the planet from catastrophic climate changes. Yet there is also no doubt that the author of Civil Disobedience would have been outraged by the Bush administration's war of choice in Iraq, illegal detention of both US citizens and foreign nationals, and use of torture and spying on Americans in violation of the Fourth Amendment. A disobedience movement, civil or otherwise, would have been a certainty for Thoreau in such circumstances.

As we celebrate America's 232nd anniversary of independence, we feel the urgent need of a Thoreau who can motivate us to simplify our lives, persuade us not to become the tools of our tools, to recognize that "our inventions are wont to be pretty toys (Internet, iPod, cell phone, take your pick) which distract our attention from serious things. They are but impoved means to an unimproved end." We need a Thoreau to remind us that our greatest skill may lie in wanting but little, that "superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only," that we are "rich only in proportion to the number of things we can afford to leave alone." As we reflect on the challenging words in the Declaration of Independence, we should also set aside some time today to reflect on Thoreau's Walden. We will only be the richer for it.