Criticisms of Algebra
It is so covered over with the scab of symbols, that I had not the patience to examine whether it be well or ill demonstrated…Symbols are poor unhandsome, though necessary scaffolds of demonstration; and ought no more to appear in public, than the most deformed necessary business which you do in your chambers…
though they shorten the writing, yet they do not make the reader understand it sooner than if it were written in words…So there is a double labor of the mind, one to reduce your symbols to words, which are also symbols, another to attend to the ideas which they signify.
— Thomas Hobbes (1656), English philosopher, translator, author, scientific critic
A man with all the algebra in the world is often only an ass when he knows nothing else. Perhaps in ten years society may derive advantage from the curves which these visionary algebraists will have laboriously squared. I congratulate posterity beforehand.
But to tell you the truth I see nothing but a scientific extravagance in all these calculations. That which is neither useful nor agreeable is worthless. As for useful things, they have all been discovered; and as to those which are agreeable, I hope that good taste will not admit algebra among them.
— Frederick the Great (1749), King of Prussia, important patron of the Enlightenment, early supporter of state sponsored universal compulsory education
Algebra as far as the quadratic equation & the use of logarithms are often of value in ordinary cases: but all beyond these is but a luxury; a delicious luxury indeed; but not to be indulged in by one who is to have a profession to follow for his subsistence.
— Thomas Jefferson (1799), third President of the United States, founding father of the US, scholar
During the three years which I spent at Cambridge [1828 - 1831], my time was wasted, as far as the academical studies were concerned….I attempted mathematics, and even went during the summer of 1828 with a private tutor (a very dull man) to Barmouth, but I got on very slowly. The work was repugnant to me, chiefly from my not being able to see any meaning in the early steps in algebra.
This impatience was very foolish, and in after years I have deeply regretted that I did not proceed far enough at least to understand something of the great leading principles of mathematics; for men thus endowed seem to have an extra sense.
But I do not believe that I should ever have succeeded beyond a very low grade.
— Charles Darwin (ca. 1876), influential English naturalist, biologist, geologist, author, a founding father of the theory of evolution by natural selection
Oh these mathematicians make me tired! When you ask them to work out a sum they take a piece of paper, cover it with rows of A’s, B’s, and X's and Y’s … scatter of mess of flyspecks over them, and then give you an answer that’s all wrong!
— Thomas Edison (ca. late 1880s), influential American inventor, industrial scientist, entrepreneur
attributed to Edison by his biographer Matthew Josephson in 1959
Of all the high school course, perhaps no study is more vague in the mind of the student after he has completed it as to its purpose and results than is algebra.
— H. L. Terry (1910), American educational administrator, state high school inspector of Wisconsin
We have in the past taught algebra and geometry to too many, not too few. Algebra and mathematics based on algebra are essential to civilization, but practically useless to most citizens…There is little practical value to warrant the time spent on them. Mental discipline is not justified for teaching them or any other subject.
- William Heard Kilpatrick (ca. early 1940s), American mathematician, educator, educational reformer, co-founder of Bennington College (Vermont)
attributed to Kilpatrick by his biographer Samuel Tenenbaum in 1951
This column has, however, one bone to pick with the schools: algebra…I cannot see that algebra contributes one iota to a young person’s health or one grain of inspiration to his spirit. . . .
If there is a heaven for school subjects, algebra will never go there. It is the one subject in the curriculum that has kept children from finishing high school, from developing their special interests and from enjoying much of their home study work.
It has caused more family rows, more tears, more heartaches and more sleepless nights than any other school subject.
— Arthur Dean (1930), syndicated columnist, wrote regular nationally circulated advice column called Your Boy and Your Girl
The algebra now taught in American high schools is a non-functional and therefore nearly valueless subject for 90 per cent of all boys and 99 per cent of all girls—and…no changes in methods or content will improve the situation.
- David Snedden (1930), American educator, educational administrator, prominent advocate for the social efficiency approach to education
attributed to Snedden by the Royal Gazette and Colonist Daily (Bermuda)
Stand firm in your refusal to remain conscious during algebra. In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.
- Fran Lebowitz (1981), contemporary American author, social commentator, actress
As long as algebra is taught in school, there will be prayer in school.
It’s clear that requiring algebra for everyone has not increased our appreciation of a calling someone once called “the poetry of the universe… So why require it, without alternatives or exceptions? Thus far I haven’t found a compelling answer.
— Andrew Hacker (2012), contemporary American political scientist, education critic, author
Teaching algebra and then hoping those skills will transfer to other areas of life is simply fantasy, a fantasy that makes our kids bored and miserable in school. The average person never does abstract reasoning. If abstract reasoning was so important, we could teach courses in that.
— Roger C. Schank (2012), American artificial intelligence theorist, educational reformer
I collided with algebra in my first year at secondary school, and it sent me reeling. The very word itself seemed sinister, a word from black magic. Algebracadabra.
Algebra messed up one of those divisions between things that help you make sense of the world and keep it tidy. Letters make words; figures make numbers. They had no business getting tangled up together. Those a’s and b’s and x’s and y’s with little numbers floating next to their heads, those brackets and hooks and symbols, all trying to conceal an answer, not give you one.
I’d sit there in my own little darkness watching it dawn on the faces of my classmates. Their hands would go up—Miss! Miss!—and mine never did. The homework reduced me to tears…“I don’t see the point of it,” I wailed, “I don’t know what its for!”
— Malcolm Peet (2007), English novelist and illustrator, teacher