Why is algebra important in High School to College?
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1. It teaches fundamental math concepts which are important for any number of fields, notably engineering and sciences but also trades. It’s also a stepping stone along the way to more advanced mathematical methods including calculus, differential equations, statistics, etc.
2. It teaches critical thinking and problem solving, involving you having to learn how to break down a problem in to steps, sometimes requiring a fair bit of creativity, in order to get to a solution. It also doesn’t require anything but a pencil and paper which makes it more amenable to reach more students than subjects requiring labs.
3. In my college at least, literally everyone back in the day had to graduate with some level of calculus. Now that could have been taking ‘math for lower life forms’ in stead of ‘honors calculus’ but it was still calculus. I still remember to this day a student struggling through a tutoring session wailing ‘But X was 3 in the LAST problem!’. Don’t be that person. Take algebra. I never took calc in high school because I took Algebra 2 over again my freshman year because I felt I didn’t understand it well enough. When the calc teacher asked why I wasn’t in her calc class my senior year I explained why and she replied that she wished more of her calc students had taken algebra again.
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