The fundamental problem is still the way math is taught and not the students.
The problem is, modern education doesn't focus on basic math skills. Children are expected to master basic math skills at a young age and continue to move on to more advanced skills. But children who grew up in poverty are less likely to master basic math skills. Than they get to high school expected to do algebra and calculus, but can't do basic math.
I think we need to drastically reform education away from the classical renessiance type of education. Most people don't need algebra, but would benefit from mastering basic math skills. And learning more practical math concepts like taxes, economic data, data managment in the workplace, starting a business etc.
Here's my understanding: most people never ue algebra, geometry, or trigonometry in their vocational lives, but these studies make one more adept at abstract thought. Attorneys need only basic math on the job, but fleibilit of mind is desirable in both.
Without question, nobody should go into algebra before having mastered basic math. Without that algebra is a farce. Far too many American youth graduate from high school without having mastered basic math. This said, such kids have not failed to learn basic math because they have been 'rushed' into algebra. Geometry turns out to be the course whose sucess is the sharpest divider between college and non-college youth.
Of course I see the Renaissance/Humanist approach to the obecties of education appropriate. These can improve a person who has the basics down pat. This is essential for getting youth to recognize that there is more to life than "sex&drugs&rock-n-roll"...and that such things as material indulgence, bureaucratic power, and display are both inadequate and expendale as objectives in life.
Neoliberal economics, the norm so long as the most powerful people in America (plutocrats, corporate executives giant farmers, and slumlords) can still enforce the tenet that "he who owns the gold makes the rules" through their political choices. It depends upon cheap, submissive, scared people doing jobs that look dreadful to those who do not do them but in which the employerinsists upon a constant display of a theatrical smile that expresses love for capitalism at its harshest. The least successful students in K-12 education and those who make bad early choices in life will be stuckin such roles.
Some people are ready to do algebra in the seventh grade. Some are never ready.
