Decision ‘08

The Stupidest Column of the Year

Absolutely astonishing…I kept looking for a hint that this was a put-on, but it just isn’t there…

Revelling in ignorance…

UPDATE 11:40 a.m.: He’s a uniter, not a divider! Contempt for Cohen brings together right and left…

UPDATE 2 12:39 p.m.: Cohen seems to think that because most people only use calculators and computers in their later life, mathematics is somehow useless (never mind his fuzziness on why this is so). The beauty of algebra, though, is it is often a young person’s first insight into the world of abstraction, a cornerstone of the intellect and one of the things that makes humans a higher life form.

Any child can look at 4 quarters and discover they make a dollar - but when the child catches on that the quarter can be x, the dollar y, and 4x=1y where x=25 and y=100, or that 1/4 is the ratio of dollar to quarters, that’s a real step towards intelligence.

When that child then learns the abstract rules of mathematics, i.e., ~~xy times xy~~ (actually, (x+y) times (x+y) - thanks, Ktesibios) equals x(squared) plus 2xy plus y(squared), and then learns that this holds true no matter the value of x and y, that’s true power, and that child is on the path towards intellectual enlightenment…

38 Responses to “The Stupidest Column of the Year”

1 Rick Moran Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
I saw that too. Just what the hell was Cohen trying to prove?

That was really a Forrest Gump moment for him - “Stupid is as stupid does.”
2 Mark Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Amazing - and this guy has prime real estate in one of the nation’s most influential papers!…
3 Dennis Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
That’s a baffling column. He couldn’t possibly think his anecdote about the math whiz misplacing a desert is proof of the great usefulness of geography, could he? And if he does, what does that say about his premise that his verbal skills provide him with great reasoning power?

Stuff like this often seems to become a pissing match between people who did better on the verbal portion of their SATs vs. those who did better on the math portion. It seems so silly. There’s a reason the schools want you to be able to write a sentence and perform some mathematic functions - both skills are important. Why is it necessary to denigrate either?
4 Dan Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
I read this waiting for the joke. I used Algebra quite a lot when I went into construction. It’s fundamental if you need to find the distance between the end points of a right triangle. (a squared plus b squared equals c squared)

Learning the distance between two points of a right triangle are useless if you’re going to grow up to be a dead tree journalist I suppose, but if you’re going to work for a living it will be the difference between being the guy that sweeps the floor and the guy that that decides where the floor is.
5 David M. Smith Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
High School should teach life skills. High Scholl Algebra is one of the best classes in High School for learning how to learn and learning how to think and learning how to apply what you learn and think.

I am already teaching my 6 and 9-year-olds algebra. I don’t care if they every use algebra a day in their life. However, I want them to be learners and thinkers their entire life.
6 evolution Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
why do i have to take algebra?

Q: What do you call someone in math class doing the crossword and
fiddling with an iPod instead of paying attention?
A: A journalist.
Meet Richard Cohen of the Washington Post, who thinks kids shouldn’t have to take that darned old math. It&#8217…
7 too many steves Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
How can you take seriously a fellow that admits to having difficulty with percentages?

HOWEVER, the public schools that I have been involved in - as a student (a long time ago) and as a parent (more recently) - take a certain one-size-fits-all approach to education. There is no accounting for differences in aptitudes, abilities, learning styles, attention spans, etc. And my children attended a high school that was, at the time, rated among the top 10 in the State.

I would like to hear the school’s side of the story with Gabriella - how, exactly, did she get to the point of giving up? How much of that result came from a lack of serious effort, how much from poor teaching, and was she simply left to sink-or-swim?
8 Aaron Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
As a chemical engineering student, I can only say I’m shocked. He is correct that numerical calculations (algebraic and even calculus) can be done by computer programs, but if you want to accomplish anything useful with such calculations, you need to understand what the operations mean, and how to manipulate equations symbolically.
9 Ktesibios Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
“When that child then learns the abstract rules of mathematics, i.e., xy times xy equals x(squared) plus 2xy plus y(squared), and then learns that this holds true no matter the value of x and y, that’s true power, and that child is on the path towards intellectual enlightenment…”

Umm, I kinda hate to be the one who tells you this, but xy * xy = x^2 * y^2. It’s (x+y) * (x+y) that equals x^2 + 2xy + y^2.

You learn that in first year high school algebra, when you start to study quadratic equations. Remember?
10 Mark Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
See what I mean? If only I’d paid attention in algebra…You’re right, of course - I’ll make the correction…
11 JasonM Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 3:04 pm
Well, according to this la times article….she skipped class 62 of 93 days her last semester.

http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-dropout30jan30,0,405044,full.story?coll=la-news-learning
12 AcademicElephant Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
So is his point that those quaint poor people don’t need fancy things like learning skills? Or that they shouldn’t be held to the draconian “grading” that makes learning such a chore? Could this be any more condescending?

Look, no one could hate mathematics more than I but you got to do it to develop your brain, and in hindsight I wouldn’t give up a minute of it from pre-algebra to AP calculus. Got a 2 on that AP, but would I be the incandescantly (sp?) brilliant scholar that I am without that training? I doubt it. Gabriela, get your act in gear, go to class, pass algebra and ignore the liberal elitist nay-sayers who keep patting you on the head and telling you you can’t do it.
13 AcademicElephant Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Because that is, in a nutshell, the soft bigotry of low expectations.
14 Ryan Bonneville Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
Doesn’t hurt that he points out that he himself failed algebra. Probably a good indication that he’s an idiot.

Also, writing is the highest form of reason? What a supreme jackass. The only people who say something like are the people who have something to prove. It’s kind of like owning a Jaguar.
15 mightcan Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
Why do I need this?

This is an article by Richard Cohen in the Washington Post. The gist of it is that he is replying to a young student that he, too, doesn’t see a need for algebra to graduate:Here’s the thing, Gabriela: You will
16 Leonidas Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
This column was excellent. Too many liberals worship numbers. They believe that technical knowledge can replace soul and faith. That’s wrong, completely wrong. This country is built on faith and leadership. We can always hire chinese number crunchers. But we can’t hire chinese leaders.
17 Clint Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Incredible.

Someone make a copy. A leading op-ed columnist at the Washington Post just admitted that he doesn’t know how to think.

More importantly, I’m flabbergasted that it used to be (still is?) possible to graduate from high school without ever passing a course in mathematics (beyond the level of arithmetic). No wonder people have to go to college, in ever increasing numbers, just to convince prospective employers that they are capable of rational thought.
18 Steve Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 11:24 pm
I’m just wondering who is going to design those fancy computers and calculators if no one in this country knows basic algebra….
19 Jacques Distler Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 1:01 am
Fascinating.

I guess that great minds think alike. Personally, I’m embarrrassed that Cohen is considered a “liberal” columnist.

If, as the LA Times reports, kids are flunking Algebra in droves, one might look for a better reason than, “Algebra’s just not that important, anyway.”
20 fatman Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 6:13 am
At the risk of being classified as an uneducated and illiterate dolt, I’m with Cohen on this one. For those who wish to take algebra (or trigonometry or calculus too) or feel they need it to pursue their career goals, fine. Let them. As for the rest of us, we’ll just have to fumble along as best we can without it. I, for one, have never missed it.
21 Leonidas Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 9:06 am

I’m just wondering who is going to design those fancy computers and calculators if no one in this country knows basic algebra….

Asian workers on visas. We can always import more engineers. Why americans have to learn a skill that we can pay Asian workers to do for less? Americans are better at being leaders and innovators. That is our system’s strength. There are always more people out there who can crunch numbers. But there will never be enough leaders and innovators.

Look at the government: Bush is no number-cruncher but he is a strong leader. Clinton was the opposite. And the country is now stronger and safer than it was before.
22 Decision ‘08 » Blog Archive » Saturday Morning Quick Shots: Great Minds Edition Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 11:03 am
[…] Our good friend and great physicist Jacques Distler has further thoughts on the inexplicable Richard Cohen polemic against algebra… […]
23 Aaron Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 11:53 am
Leonidas, I can’t really tell if you’re being sarcastic or serious. I’ll assume the latter for the sake of argument at least. Engineers from India have been more than willing to come to the United States in recent history, because, until the early years of this decade, the Indian government pursued mercantilist policies and kept a largely closed economy. Now that India has opened its economy, it is not necessary for Indian engineers to come to the US to make money.

You also seem to have confused the role of an engineer with that of a technician. Technicians are mere number-crunchers. Engineers are actual innovators. And how do you propose that a nation of people who are unskilled in anything beyond simple arithmetic innovate anything?
24 Ryan Bonneville Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
For those who are supporting Cohen, how can you avoid the slippery slope? It’s just as likely that most people never use knowledge from history or literature courses. Or civics/government. What should we be teaching people if the new standard is “will they ever use those specific pieces of knowledge again”? Not to be cruel (yeah right), but only a bona fide idiot thinks the point of school is to teach people specific pieces of information (like how to solve 3x = 9).
25 Gwedd Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
Comrades,

Let me give you a real world example of what happens when those in charge let machines do the work.

I spent many years with the US Navy in the Anti-Submarine Warfare business. It’s an environment that requires mathmatical abilities and deals with several mediums. Figuring the speed of sound, for example, is easy at sea level, but add in the effects of water temperature, salinity, and pressure (depth) and things get more complicated right quickly. It’s challenging work, where time/distance relationships are important, not just to track a target. but to fix it’s position and kill it if need be. It’s also especially important for intelligence work like doppler mapping the hull. You need to be fairly precise.

Well, prior to the advent of computers, all of this was done by hand. Formulas needed to be memorized and the ability to work quickly with pencil and paper was paramount, especially with a moving target. Sometimes I used a circular slide-rule (hate to date myself, but hey…) and eventually I added in a calculator, but they took up space, and bouncing around in rough weather could make just writing tough, let alone finding small buttons in a darkened area.

The higher-powers that set policy decided that, when our airborne platforms became computerized, that the computers would be doing all the work, so there was no need to teach the equations in the Navy Schools. Simply show the students which buttons were used for which situations, and how the data should be punched in. Simple eh? Our problems were just beginning.

In he process of streamlining the school carriculum, and touting the new technology, they also forgot to let us folks out in the fleet know that the formulas weren’t being taught anymore. Imagine, then, our surprise when, with new sensor operators onboard, and closely tracking a submerged contact, the computer dumped (as it was and still is want to do) and wouldn’t reboot. Dead. Not coming back. Suddenly, our sensor stations were useless, because the operators could not compute and analyse the data coming in. They didn’t know how to do it. They’d never been taught, because some earlier Richard Cohen type had decided they weren’t going to need the knowledge, because the machines would do it all for them.

Fortunately, we were not in a hot war, but the shock of that realization sent reverberations all through the fleet. The schools were contacted and the earlier math regimens were put back in, and refresher courses ordered for all around, and the problem solved. Luckily. Imagine had we been at war, tracking a boomer (ballistic missile sub) in order to kill it before it could launch it’s missiles, and the system had gone down? The crew would have been unable to acquire and fix their target until they saw missles begin to rise from the water. It’s a scary world.

Anyway, sorry for the probably boring story, but it’s an example of how decisions made in haste can affect events not considered. Like a pebble into a body of water, those impact rigs spread out and touch far more areas that the initial decision makers thought possible.

Respects to all,

Gwedd
26 Leonidas Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 4:54 pm
And how do you propose that a nation of people who are unskilled in anything beyond simple arithmetic innovate anything?

You are the one who proposes that the only important skills are algebra and arithmetic, not me. Can’t you see that?
27 Mark Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
Ummm….Leonidas, nobody said the ONLY important skills were algebra and arithmetic…
28 Aaron Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
“You are the one who proposes that the only important skills are algebra and arithmetic, not me. Can’t you see that? ”

No I’m not. Not all. Maybe you don’t think that literacy is a very important skill either, if you thought that after having read my post. I said nothing denigrating any skills. In the area of scientific innovation, science (and therefore mathematics) is essential.
29 Clint Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
Leonidas-

If only you’d taken some proper math courses, you wouldn’t have to make such a fool of yourself. You’ve failed to understand the very simple logic in a very simple statement.

I’d try to explain it to you (as others have) — but you’ve already stridently insisted that you don’t see any need to understand such useless abstractions.

Thank you for illustrating the point so clearly.
30 Bob Says:
February 20th, 2006 at 11:58 am
If algebra is a requirement, she just has to do it, no matter how hard.

But don’t kid yourself, at least 90% of people have no need whatsover for algebra once they get out of school. For certain fields and occupations, of course it is necessary but not for most, who only need the math skills learned in elementary school. Algebra is no more the path to “intellectual enlightment” than many other types of learning. It only seems so to those who are good at it.
31 Rob Says:
February 24th, 2006 at 3:06 am
I have some concerns with this column and some of the replies. (For full disclosure, I am a high school math teacher.)

1. What, as a nation, would we like to assume people know if they have a high school diploma? (As a business owner, what would you want to assume from an applicant with a high school diploma?) Personally, I would hope that a student could read, write, and communicate in a basic way. I separate communicate because some students can read words and have no idea what they mean. A similar argument could be made for writing.

I would also hope that students have some basic numeracy - most of which is covered before Algebra but reviewed in an Algebra 1 course. (Which is more $5 or $50? If you get paid $9.50 an hour, how many hours will you have to work to pay for rent, food, transportation, and taxes?)

Not all topics presented in an Algebra course will come up later in life. (Except in higher level math courses I have had to take, I have not factored a polynomial in my life.) However, I do believe working with factoring and other, more subtle, techniques in Algbera I have obtained a deeper understanding of the original Algebra. (Do I have proof, no.)

2. What can we do in order to reach the students who are slipping through the cracks? The students who are reaching high school with a very socially accepted hatred of decimals and fractions? (I use decimals a lot in life - working with change is working with some basic decimals.) Not all students need to be Algebra pros, but I rarely believe a 15 year-old is capable of making a decision to cut off future careers due to one course. If I had been given that ability I would never have taken the required four years of math at my high school. (private, yes.)

3. How can we connect students who have not been able to succeed in a traditional setting with the skills they might need to complete job training or job requirements after school? Someone commented on this particular girl, I believe, going to a vocational training program which was discussed in the original LA Times article. Something said rings true - she probably will not cut over 60% of those classes and will probably learn some of the Algebra and reading skills she will need in that job. How should schools be preparing students for these alternative tracks?

Just some thoughts.

Rob I.
32 Mark Says:
February 24th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Rob, thanks for the discussion - of course, you’re in the battleground itself, so your points are much appreciated…
33 Tony Says:
February 28th, 2006 at 4:24 am
In my job, I only use less 10% of what I have learned from uni or high school. 90% of the work I have to learn by experience or self-study. But what I learned from uni subjects is the methodology and approach to solve real-life problems.

Algebra is required to study calculus and many other subject. Algebra is good example to abstract your ideas, to synthesize and to get a conclusion from observations.

If Mr.Cohen hasn’t used algebra at all in his life, that’s perfectly fine. But the way Mr.Cohen said “Algebra is no good” is to synthesize information or to get conclusion from Mr.Cohen observations in his life, which is exactly the core purpose of school algebra lessons.
34 Decision ‘08 » Blog Archive » How’s That NEA Working Out? Says:
March 1st, 2006 at 8:16 pm
[…] I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - the NEA is the biggest single obstacle to quality education in the United States. By relentlessly opposing any measures that would guarantee accountability and quality instruction (vouchers, school choice, teacher testing, etc.), the teacher’s union does immense harm to the future of our nation. We’ve seen the lowered standards at work in the whining from some quarters about algebra as a requirement for a high school diploma - now we see it in the absolutely shameful fact that only 1 in 4 Americans knows what the First Amendment is. […]
35 Decision ‘08 » Blog Archive » Richard Cohen, Grade-A Twit Says:
March 30th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
[…] You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your ownsite. […]
36 Decision ‘08 » Blog Archive » Can It Be? I Praise Cohen - And My Tongue’s Not In Check Says:
May 4th, 2006 at 9:52 am
[…] You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your ownsite. […]
37 Decision ‘08 » Blog Archive » Cohen - Again - Surprises Says:
May 22nd, 2006 at 10:43 pm
[…] I don’t know what in blue blazes Richard Cohen has been drinking, but give me some of that! There was a time when I couldn’t read his columns without cringing - and that’s not even mentioning the infamous anti-algebra tirade - but lately I find myself in awe of how much sense he’s making. From his latest: For many who supported going to war in Iraq, the nature of the regime was important, even paramount. It is disappointing that this no longer gets mentioned. I suppose the handwriting was on the wall when Michael Moore failed to mention Saddam’s crimes at all in his movie “Fahrenheit 9/11.’’ Years from now, someone coming across the film could conclude that the U.S. picked on the Middle Eastern version of Switzerland. Now, all the weight is on one side of the moral scale. […]
38 Decision ‘08 » Blog Archive » The Most Idiotic Opinion Piece of 2007… Says:
January 5th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
[…] …has already been written. No one else can come close; like Richard Cohen’s anti-algebra screed of 2006 (also written quite early in the year), it is so utterly insipid that it’s doubtful any other op-ed will come within a country mile. […]