Re: [OT] algebra text?

[Hugh Logan <hloganPHY@CFL.RR.COM>]

John,

I have been away from high school teaching for many years. However, I
remember that the high school mathematics texts by Mary Dolciani were
then considered the standard. As I recall, there was material on set
theory and mathematical foundations in general. The ninth grade Algebra
I text had a proof by contradiction that the square root of 2 is
irrational. I seem to recall a treatment of the number line using the
idea of vectors. In those days, I believe there was a choice of several
levels of texts. I also had the occasion to use her Algebra 2 and
Pre-Calculus texts. I thought her algebra texts were the best of the
widely used ones of the time. Mary, who died in 1985, was highly
respected by the mathematics teaching profession. I think she was a
mathematician as well as a writer of  high school texts. I recall her
presentation about graph theory, "The Seven Bridges of Koenigsberg," at
a mathematics teachers' meeting in Pennsylvania around 1976. There is a
biographical sketch of her achievements at
<http://www.nctm.org/about/met/bio_dolciani.htm>. If one searches the
book sectionof Amazon.com for "Mary Dolciani," one  finds that several
of her texts (with  co-authors) are currently available. The one for
Algebra 2 (with trigonometry) gets a 5-star rating among the four
customer reviews. I don't know if anyone has written anything better in
more recent years.

Hugh Logan

John Denker wrote:

> Hi --
>
> I know this is off-topic, but I'm stuck and I was hoping some
> folks on this list could give me a hand.  I've been dealing
> with a kid who is taking ninth grade "algebra 1, algebra 2".
> By some measures he's doing fine: he's getting high As, verging
> on A+.  But he complains constantly about the course.  He says
> he's not learning anything ... and I agree with him, on the
> grounds that his knowledge of basic algebra facts is alarminly
> thin.  (How he can get high As without learning much of anything
> might be the subject for an interesting conversation some day,
> but not today, please.)
>
> He also complains about the textbook, saying it is a "tossed
> salad of examples" with no explanations ... and I mostly
> agree with that, too ... and that forms the main topic of this
> note.  We're talking about
>   _Algebra 1_ by Larson, Boswell, and Kanold
> I found lots and lots of examples, with astonishingly little
> explanation of what the ideas are and how the ideas might be
> related to one another, and also very little formalism.  By
> way of example, there is a section on fitting straight lines
> through scattered data, and the only instruction is to find
> the "best" line, with no discussion of what might make one
> line better than another! (Also there is no mention of the
> fact that it might help to use a _transparent_ straightedge.)
>
> I've seen some math books that were justly criticized as
> being too "dry", with not enough examples ... but this
> book is far too "wet".
>
> I went to amazon.com and sure enough this book got a number
> of rotten reviews ... but the other books in the same
> category got even worse reviews.  Eeek!
>
> So ....
>
> -- Does anybody have any suggestions or recommendations?
>  What do they use at your school?  Are the customers
>  happy with it?
>
> -- Would anybody care to comment on the Algebra DVD set
>  from the Standard Deviants?  (It gets good reviews, but
>  I haven't seen it myself.)
>
> -- Are there perhaps _college_ algebra books I should be
>  looking at, i.e. something that is simultaneously
>  introductory yet systematic?