Fred wrote: << ... "You're a mathematician" (always an ominous opener, I have observed) "--- what's the use of algebra?" I think I did eventually manage to marshall a reasonably convincing reply. But I wondered what would other people here have told her?

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For any student who has any chance of going on into a profession that makes use of algebra (not just science but, e.g., carpentry and finance), taking algebra makes sense. But I'm not at all sure it makes sense for it to be a required course for *all* students. IF it does make sense to require for all students, I'd like to see it incorporated gently into the math curriculum from the earliest grades: If we know what a certain number is, we use it. If we don't, we use x. And if there's room for only one algebra-level course in a student's schedule, I'd much rather it were statistics and logical thinking -- aka how to read a newspaper skeptically -- which has a much more concrete payoff in daily life than algebra. --Dan _____________________________________________________________________ "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi." --Peter Schickele