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Post Made Community Wiki by S. Carnahan♦
layout, extra remark on caculus
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Victor Protsak
Victor Protsak
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In the context of college students, I agree with Alexander Woo's explanation. By the way, the best and the brightest often place out of calculus (that's the case at Yale, and I imagine it's not that much different at Berkeley), so the percentages of weak students at best schools aren't as dire as you might think.

As forConcerning the last question why discrete math isn't offered to high school students without calculus: not,

"Why isn't discrete mathematics offered to high school students without calculus background?"

Not only is that possible, but it was donehad been the norm in the past as part ofwithin the "New Math" movementcurriculum, when everyone had to learn about sets and functions in high school. This ended in a PR disaster and a huge backlash against mathematics, because generations of students were lost and got turned off by mathematics for life (somelife; some of them later became politicians who decide on our funding!. Consequently, it was abandoned. (Apparently, calculus in HS was introduced as a part of the same package and survived.) 

I'd be interested to know if there are any high school -– college partnerships that offer discrete mathematics to H.S. students with strong analytical skills, and how do they handle the pre-requisitesprerequisites question.

In the context of college students, I agree with Alexander Woo's explanation. By the way, the best and the brightest often place out of calculus (that's the case at Yale, and I imagine it's not that much different at Berkeley), so the percentages of weak students at best schools aren't as dire as you might think.

As for the last question why discrete math isn't offered to high school students without calculus: not only is that possible, but it was done in the past as part of the "New Math" movement, when everyone had to learn about sets and functions. This ended in a PR disaster, because generations of students were lost and got turned off by mathematics for life (some of them became politicians who decide on our funding!) I'd be interested to know if there are any high school - college partnerships that offer discrete mathematics to H.S. students with strong analytical skills, and how do they handle the pre-requisites question.

In the context of college students, I agree with Alexander Woo's explanation. By the way, the best and the brightest often place out of calculus (that's the case at Yale, and I imagine it's not that much different at Berkeley), so the percentages of weak students at best schools aren't as dire as you might think.

Concerning the last question,

"Why isn't discrete mathematics offered to high school students without calculus background?"

Not only is that possible, but it had been the norm in the past within the "New Math" curriculum, when everyone had to learn about sets and functions in high school. This ended in a PR disaster and a huge backlash against mathematics, because generations of students were lost and got turned off by mathematics for life; some of them later became politicians who decide on our funding. Consequently, it was abandoned. (Apparently, calculus in HS was introduced as a part of the same package and survived.) 

I'd be interested to know if there are any high school – college partnerships that offer discrete mathematics to H.S. students with strong analytical skills, and how do they handle the prerequisites question.

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Victor Protsak
Victor Protsak
  • 14.5k
  • 4
  • 68
  • 94

In the context of college students, I agree with Alexander Woo's explanation. By the way, the best and the brightest often place out of calculus (that's the case at Yale, and I imagine it's not that much different at Berkeley), so the percentages of weak students at best schools aren't as dire as you might think.

As for the last question why discrete math isn't offered to high school students without calculus: not only is that possible, but it was done in the past as part of the "New Math" movement, when everyone had to learn about sets and functions. This ended in a PR disaster, because generations of students were lost and got turned off by mathematics for life (some of them became politicians who decide on our funding!) I'd be interested to know if there are any high school - college partnerships that offer discrete mathematics to H.S. students with strong analytical skills, and how do they handle the pre-requisites question.