When students are home schooled, there are many issues that they face as they progress in their curriculum. When it comes to fulfilling the requirements to get accepted to college, math appears to be a key factor in the decision process. This begs the question, is math the only indication of how a student will do in about college? Whatever happened to writing skills?
According to Don Peter, associate professor of engineering at Seattle Pacific University, these are common questions parents find themselves asking when homeschooling high school-level students.
"Math requirements vary by school. You don't necessarily have to have extra math to get into a college, but you do need it to be well educated," said Professor Peter. "Upper level math can train your mind. Math is a good discipline, and teaches problem solving in a variety of subjects, beyond math."
Societal expectations have a lot to do with math achievement. In one example, Professor Peter discussed a story about meeting a student from Japan who was going into a business program, and apologizing that he only had two years of calculus under his belt.
In the US, our math expectations are so much lower than the rest of the world. We project those low expectations onto kids even from the grade school level; telling them that math is so hard and it's no fun.
According to Professor Peter, that "promotes a negative view of math. It is a cultural issue that trains children to think 'I can't do this.' The only real solution is a cultural shift in the perception of math," he said.
Math is fundamental to science and engineering. Right now many of our country's science and engineering professionals are nearing retirement, yet there are few up-and-coming students able to take those jobs. There are too few people the math skills necessary to take those jobs.
Foreign technical workers are taking those technical jobs, because there are simply too few US students who can do the work. For example, right now there is a deficit of aerospace engineers, and they can't find people to fill those jobs for defense contracts.
Math is fundamental for all students going into engineering sciences. According to Professor Peter, he has had many students over the years who want to go into engineering but stumble on the math. They may have made good engineers, but they couldn't take the math.
Because this is such a large national problem, the government is working on solutions. Grant money from US government and corporations is promoting science and math curriculum and providing hands-on curriculum for math and science. There needs to be a revolution on how science is taught in grade school and middle school. Math should be portrayed as exciting and fun!
According to Don Peter, associate professor of engineering at Seattle Pacific University, these are common questions parents find themselves asking when homeschooling high school-level students.
"Math requirements vary by school. You don't necessarily have to have extra math to get into a college, but you do need it to be well educated," said Professor Peter. "Upper level math can train your mind. Math is a good discipline, and teaches problem solving in a variety of subjects, beyond math."
Societal expectations have a lot to do with math achievement. In one example, Professor Peter discussed a story about meeting a student from Japan who was going into a business program, and apologizing that he only had two years of calculus under his belt.
In the US, our math expectations are so much lower than the rest of the world. We project those low expectations onto kids even from the grade school level; telling them that math is so hard and it's no fun.
According to Professor Peter, that "promotes a negative view of math. It is a cultural issue that trains children to think 'I can't do this.' The only real solution is a cultural shift in the perception of math," he said.
Math is fundamental to science and engineering. Right now many of our country's science and engineering professionals are nearing retirement, yet there are few up-and-coming students able to take those jobs. There are too few people the math skills necessary to take those jobs.
Foreign technical workers are taking those technical jobs, because there are simply too few US students who can do the work. For example, right now there is a deficit of aerospace engineers, and they can't find people to fill those jobs for defense contracts.
Math is fundamental for all students going into engineering sciences. According to Professor Peter, he has had many students over the years who want to go into engineering but stumble on the math. They may have made good engineers, but they couldn't take the math.
Because this is such a large national problem, the government is working on solutions. Grant money from US government and corporations is promoting science and math curriculum and providing hands-on curriculum for math and science. There needs to be a revolution on how science is taught in grade school and middle school. Math should be portrayed as exciting and fun!
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