"Dear educators: I get that you’re frustrated, that you are under tremendous pressure to accomplish more with fewer and fewer resources. I get that you are underpaid and unappreciated. No doubt it is demoralizing to stare out at all those apathetic, unmotivated faces week after week, and hear the knee-jerk whining about how awful it is, this subject you love so much.
But please don’t give up on us. Not yet. We need algebra, whether we realize it or not, regardless of whether we use it on the job or not. Help us appreciate that there is more to education than mere job training, and that “culture” doesn’t just encompass art, literature, music, history and philosophy; it also includes math and science. Don’t let us get away with doing just enough to get by, of being less than our best. Make us realize that just because something is hard, and doesn’t come easily, that’s no reason just to give up and stop trying. Some things are supposed to be hard, and those hard things are worth doing.
Make us do the math. Some day, we’ll thank you."
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