"Algebra"

As a confused 9th grader I was accepted by the prestigious Bronx High School Of Science. I now know that it was a mistake to go there.

I was unable to learn French, and a well-meaning 10th grade English teacher told me that if I didn't learn to spell, I could spend the rest of my academic life in her English class. My purported IQ of 169 and the support of my teachers could not, for whatever reason, help me learn what I needed to the satisfaction of my teachers.

I left Bronx Science and transferred to a private school where they were not as concerned by these shortcomings as Bronx Science, but my life was to take a very different course because I could not learn to spell or master the French language.

It was not until I was in my mid-thirties that I learned that I was dyslexic, and to this day I can't spell or speak French.

These events changed the direction of my life. Instead of going on to college, and being thus deferred from the draft, and the Korean War, I ended up having four glorious years in the US Air Force.

In 1955, following my discharge from the Air Force, I tried to enroll in what was considered a good University to study electrical engineering. No language in high school, no proper English credits, no entry - that was the inflexible rule, even though my math, physics, and other skills were outstanding.

As a result, I enrolled in what can best be described as a second rate school, The RCA Institute.

With great difficulty, I have managed to prevail, even though I still cannot spell nor can I speak French. Of course I am grateful to spell-check and the Berlitz schools where I have studied Spanish, German, and French, but ordering a glass of water in any of these languages is still an event.

The system failed me then as it fails young people today. Recently, I was caught by a newspaper account of many Los Angeles students being unable to graduate because of their inability to learn algebra.

When the Los Angeles Board of Education approved tougher graduation requirements starting in 2003, they wanted to give kids a better education and groom more graduates for college and high-level jobs. The new rules mandated that students had to pass a year of algebra and a year of geometry or an equivalent class to earn diplomas. The policy was born as a worthy goal, but has denied vast numbers of students a high school diploma.

"It triggers dropouts more than any single subject," said Los Angeles schools Supt. Roy Romer. "I think it is a cumulative failure of our ability to teach math adequately in the public school system."

In the fall of 2004, 48,000 ninth-graders took beginning algebra; 44% flunked; 17% percent finished with Ds. Among those who repeated the class in the spring, nearly three-quarters flunked again.

I have read that educators say algebra offers a practical benefit: "Analytical skills and formulas enable people to make sense of the world. Algebra can help a worker calculate income taxes; a baseball fan determines a pitcher's earned-run average and a driver determine a car's gas mileage." They can't be serious.

State Sen. Chuck Poochigian (R-Fresno), who wrote the algebra graduation law, said, "We have a problem with a high dropout rate. You don't address it by making it easier to get through and have the meaning of the diploma diluted... It should be a call to action... not to lower standards but to find ways to inspire. Our future depends on it."

Inspire? The Senator has a different definition of the word then I do. I was a Korean War Air Force radio maintenance instructor for three years, and I found that creating a non-threatening environment in my classroom helped learning to take place.

Apparently, requiring all students to pass algebra might or might not be a good idea, but schools still have a need to be equipped to teach it, and students need to be equipped to learn it. Sadly, for some, this will never happen.

I have some suggestions:

1. You can't mandate learning and if you want to lose many young students, just threaten them with the loss of their high school diplomas.

2. Self-serving politicians and educators will only hurt the situation, and not help it.

3. The-one-size-fits-all model will not work.

4. Make algebra a recommended option for the students, and be certain that "inspirational" and well motivated teachers teach it in small classes.

A friend once wrote "Teachers keep striving to make education more meaningful, and achievement scores continue to decrease and the dropout rate increases. Could it be that we try too hard? Do we care too much? Have we made the learning environment too stressful, pressure packed, too unpleasant for student, teacher and administrator? And what about the 5,000 teenagers who commit suicide each year?"

The also say, "It's time to make school a continuous celebration of education and not an interruption. We need to lighten up, ask the right questions, and come up with creative answers..."

In suburban New York, raising my son, who is also dyslexic, exposed me to educators who maintained that all would be OK with him "If he only would try harder." I realize now that he was doing the best that he could do to get the work done, and it was the system that failed him, as it had failed me.

George Bernard Shaw once said, "The only time my education was interrupted was when I went to school."

Sounds about right to me!

Norman Horowitz
Still dyslexic

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