# How many years of high school math do students need? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 11, 2019, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373 "2019-06-11T13:15:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/41 "2019-06-12T04:55:08Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > The problem with math, however, is that it is also probably the most unforgiving of subjects. Unlike something like history or writing, you can’t sort of muddle through. A poor writer can still put words on paper and come out with a mediocre essay and get credit, and while you might not remember all of the dates on a history test, if you read the material you probably remember at least few. But with math, an answer is either right or wrong. If you don’t understand the process, or your mind can’t make the logical leaps, which rely more on instinct than rote memorization, then you are going fail. Also unlike other subjects, math builds very heavily on what came before it. So if you fall behind and miss one concept on the way up, its going to continue to hold you back in all future math classes. This is why math is one of the most hated/dreaded subjects and why I might be loathe to make hard requirements. The same happens with Chemistry or Physics (both of which rely heavily on math), but at least in Spain you’re a lot more likely to get a math teacher who doesn’t understand the subject than a science teacher in the same situation. Sadly this is a vicious circle: you get teachers who don’t explain it well, so their students who eventually pass and get the associated degree don’t understand it well, so they can’t explain it well… Here at least, Phys Ed and Math seem to collect the worst teachers either in terms of not understanding the subject or not understanding the students; Phys Ed also gets a lot who don’t give a shit (which I haven’t encountered in Math). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/42 "2019-06-12T04:58:12Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Or by measuring their fingers (or 2 of them) figure out about which finger is one inch across. Not any on MY hands… unless you’re willing to accept a 20% difference, that is. Just don’t try to call that an acceptable error level when filing your taxes. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/43 "2019-06-12T05:48:59Z")
How are kids supposed to know what they are good or bad at if they’re not given the opportunity or even pushed into different types of math? I was rolling through school kicking ass at everything until I crashed and burned at Algebra 2. I also crashed and burned at AP Chem. I was able to get out of those classes, and realized my passion was English and went on to a degree in journalism. My best friend was rolling through school with his finger up his nose, not excelling at anything, no encouragement from his family, until he landed in Algebra 2 and it all clicked for him. He kicked Calculus’s ass too. He discovered his love for math and his ability to be a good student, and went on to a degree in Computer Science. You can’t say “no one uses that stuff” because some people use that stuff. Don’t tell me trades don’t use that stuff! My dad went to sheet metal school as an adult and found HIS love for Trig (after being a highschool dropout and a factory laborer for 20 years). Button-pushing laborer jobs are going to be a thing of the past, and STEM is on the rise. We need to give kids the opportunity to figure out if advanced math is something they can do and enjoy. I don’t think Calc & Trig need to be mandatory to graduate (thankfully, they weren’t mandatory for me - I took Spanish instead) but I don’t think we need to shut them down or discourage kids from trying them. You never know when the next kid is going to have her “eureka!” moment and find themselves on a path to NASA. Also, kids have 12 years to learn math skills. I don’t know if it’s useful to just toss in a “here’s all the math you’ll need in your daily lives” class some time around 11th grade. Why not sprinkle those sorts of lessons throughout their entire school career? You can learn to make change and calculate income tax deductions as part of existing lessons. ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/44 "2019-06-12T05:53:17Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > I’m also not sure why accounting is considered more practical than figuring out how much butter you’ll need (and whether you need to buy more) when you have a cake recipe for a 13"x9" pan, but all you have are 8" round cake pans (because your 13"x9" is where you’re cooking the lasagna - speaking of which, two of your guests are vegans, so how do you change this entree that serves 6 into an entree that serves 4? and what time does it need to go into the oven so that everything is ready to eat at the same time since they all have different baking and resting times?) I think it’s hilarious that this is presented as multiple math problems. You don’t have to change the cake recipe, you just eyeball your pans and cook it for less time. There’s no reason to make less food because you just eat the leftovers - better use of your time to make more food than make less. The only math problem here (barely) is baking everything to finish at the same time, except, in normal cooking, you would never need to the cake and lasagne near one another in preparation in the first place. The cake is done well in advance. Sounds more like you listed a bunch of life skills (learn how to be flexible in cooking, budget your time wisely, and proper task management) than actual math. Moving on, though… We had 3 years of required math. Even though I learned a lot of worthless stuff because my final classes were calculus and I never used that, I’d still recommend that many years of math. But practical math. As mentioned before, less of the solving matrices and logarithms stuff, more of the calculating compound interest stuff. I don’t know how anyone here thinks there’s any possibility of not learning algebra in school though. Our standard school system had everyone learning basic algebra at age 11. Well before high school. If anyone’s not getting to that by the end of high school, they’re definitely laughably underprepared for life and their school system has failed them. The main problem with high school math classes is they may teach you important things, but never give you their practical applications, which is stupid. Kids would beg teachers all the time to tell them why this stuff was important or when they’d ever use it, but even if we were being taught something useful the teachers never explained how or why it was. We’d be taught probability, but not what that means in playing the lottery or gambling. We’d be taught exponential equations, but not told that this was useful for understanding and calculating compounding interest. We’d be taught geometry, but it was always weird proofs and never about how many garden soil bags we need to fill a 5 foot by 10 foot trough. We were given all the tools but how or why we’d be using them was always kept from us like it was some kind of “you’ll get it when you’re older” thing. Thank god I did retain the useful stuff and figure out WHAT it was even useful for. It makes me mad even to this day that there’s a hundred ways to make math practical, and explain why it’s useful, but all the math teachers would just splutter and say that we needed it if one day we thought we’d want to be a scientist. Nothing actually useful. You could’ve taught us how to find the best deal at a grocery store! How to arrive places on time! How loans work! But instead they couldn’t be assed to even let us know what we were learning was useful after all. I learned a lot of useful stuff. But I also learned so much crap I’ve never had to think of again. A whole year, wasted on teaching us how to plot sine waves on our calculators. I could do it, but who knows why. And if a person isn’t a logical thinker by high school, no amount of logic proofs is going to teach them how to start that late in life. I watched the other kids. The only reason they found math so hard was because for some reason they couldn’t follow simple directions. High school math is just following directions from A to B. You don’t need to know why. I watched them fight with teachers over physics, asking how these problems resulted in those answers, when that didn’t even matter. You follow the directions, you get the answer. Every time. They’re not asking us to make new equations or discover quantum physics. They are just asking us to re-solve problems solved a million times before. We’re not going to prove the physics teacher wrong about how gravity works. And this followed through to my adult life. Seems like not a single damn person can follow simple directions. You can give them a numbered list of 3 things to do in order and they just can’t figure it out. They can’t read and just do what it says. They’ll say they couldn’t figure out what they had to do. It’s absolutely mind-numbing. Theoretically our school system is designed to create exactly these sorts of mindless cogs who can follow a simple direction, and yet somehow they aren’t. That’s a mystery I’d like solved. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/45 "2019-06-12T10:30:22Z")
I took two years of math, Algebra in the 9th grade and Geometry in the 10th. Trig and Calculus were offered for students (science majors) that needed it for college. I didn’t do well in Geometry and didn’t take any more math until forced to in college. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/46 "2019-06-12T11:07:46Z")
I think there should be four years of math, but I think there should be a much slower option for kids that need it: spend two full years on what we now call Algebra one, then geometry and Alg 2. I’ve been watching high school kids learn math for nearly 20 years. Math, more than anything, is something almost anyone can learn _given adequate time_. I also have seen that the problem, more than anything, is a wobbly understanding of the fundamentals of Algebra. So do Algebra 1 SLOW. Work in lots of repetition and application. Then build on that. But don’t rush them through Alg 1 when they aren’t ready to go that fast, then make them do it again when they fail. Do it slow, do it right, make sure they get it. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/47 "2019-06-12T11:08:51Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Quite frankly, unless a HS student plans to go into some field like science or engineering, they shouldn’t have to learn anything beyond algebra. I’d much rather see high schoolers be taught a lot more practical math related to personal finance, household budgeting, etc. these days; there’s far more need for that. What about the kid who, in 9th grade dreams of one day being a rodeo clown, then, with graduation looming realizes he wants to be an astronaut? ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/48 "2019-06-12T13:00:57Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > I think there should be four years of math, but I think there should be a much slower option for kids that need it: spend two full years on what we now call Algebra one, then geometry and Alg 2. > > I’ve been watching high school kids learn math for nearly 20 years. Math, more than anything, is something almost anyone can learn _given adequate time_. I also have seen that the problem, more than anything, is a wobbly understanding of the fundamentals of Algebra. So do Algebra 1 SLOW. Work in lots of repetition and application. Then build on that. But don’t rush them through Alg 1 when they aren’t ready to go that fast, then make them do it again when they fail. Do it slow, do it right, make sure they get it. Along with that, it’s weird on makeup grades. In Kansas if a kid gets say a D in a class, then retakes the class to learn it better and gets a B, the D still goes down in the grades. Only if a kid gets and F can that F get changed. So if a kid has a terrible Algebra 2 teacher who gives them a D in first semester and and F in second semester, they can retake the course in summer school but only get the F changed, not the D. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/49 "2019-06-12T13:58:34Z")
> [@Macca26](#): > > The main problem with high school math classes is they may teach you important things, but never give you their practical applications, which is stupid. Kids would beg teachers all the time to tell them why this stuff was important or when they’d ever use it, but even if we were being taught something useful the teachers never explained how or why it was. I very much agree and appreciate your rant on this. I remember when I was in geometry class, very likely (with adult hindsight) my school was of poor quality because the entire semester of geometry consisted of drawing each shape on a page of a notebook and writing the proof below it. The notebook was graded at the end of the semester as sort of a final “exam”. At the time I thought it was fun and easy because it was just drawing and copying the proof from the textbook into my notebook. It never once occurred to me that I was learning logic. In hindsight I can see the logic, but still don’t think it was the best way to teach it at all. > [@Macca26](#): > > Seems like not a single damn person can follow simple directions. You can give them a numbered list of 3 things to do in order and they just can’t figure it out. They can’t read and just do what it says. They’ll say they couldn’t figure out what they had to do. It’s absolutely mind-numbing. Theoretically our school system is designed to create exactly these sorts of mindless cogs who can follow a simple direction, and yet somehow they aren’t. That’s a mystery I’d like solved. This is a very interesting observation. I suspect it has more to do with the way people process information, which may also be in complete conflict with how they’re taught math and logic. I’ve worked with people like the ones you describe who couldn’t follow simple directions. If they made a list of tasks to get done, I would observe that they’d tackle the list in random order and never get to some of the items, then they’d make a new list, etc. and eventually they had a handful of lists of tasks all in various states of completion. Another example: I noticed that they’d create a spreadsheet and type in column headers for things they wanted to track, for example item number, task name, date started, date completed. Over a few meetings where we’d update the spreadsheet, I noticed that they’d forget about the column headers and end up typing comments into the date started cell for one task, type comments into the task name for another task, put the completion date for a task into it’s task name cell, etc. What I noticed is that these people did not have a methodical way of thinking about things, they were creative/impulsive/random thinkers. I’m exceedingly logical and methodical but I’m not sure their way of thinking is bad. It’s just different. (and frustrating to work with at times because of the natural conflicts that occur, but… eh, as they saying goes “it takes all kinds”) Are these people unable to think methodically because they failed at elementary/high school math? I don’t know, to be honest. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/50 "2019-06-12T14:53:38Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > What about the kid who, in 9th grade dreams of one day being a rodeo clown, then, with graduation looming realizes he wants to be an astronaut? That kid is unlikely to learn much through being forced to go to math classes he’s not interested in and might not be mentally suited for yet. He’ll have spent his Algebra classes doodling bulls and clowns, and is better served by a system for doing remedial math for motivated young adults. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/51 "2019-06-12T14:56:42Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > 1 > > I propose we need math but it should be practical math such as accounting and understanding of business and finance such as how to analyze a loan and how compounded interest works. Why? Because no matter what field you go into you will need those skills. > > What do you all think? > > Questions: > > 1. How many years of HS math were you required to have? > > 2. How many years of HS math do you think we should require? > > 3. Would you prefer HS students take more practical math courses like financial math over math with more scientific applications like geometry? 1 It depended: early/mid 70s. College Prep needed 3 years and business/general students needed 1. But they had access to a year or more of what you are calling more practical math. That was denied to us as well as things like typing. :smack: Literally we could not take those classes. Even as a kid it seemed stupid to me. 2 I am going with 2 years. If you do go college they have classes in place to get you up to speed if needed and if a math-heavy job is attractive to you you can always take a heavier math load in high school. I was able to do Algebra I & II, geometry, Trig and calc I & II; our school had a helluva math department. 3 For general students and most college-bound kids; yeah. I went into education and psychology and 10 years after college ended up starting my own business. Some practical math would have saved me a lot of hassle. For all the advanced math I learned and how good I was at it, I don’t think I’ve use a stitch of it since about 1982 or so. Except for one bizarre site that used advanced formulas to hide/reveal passwords. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/52 "2019-06-12T16:42:54Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > And please teach them that you can solve for anything, not just for X, and that your “variable” can have a long-ass symbol, and that you can always say “you know what, since this variable’s symbol is kind of clunky, I’m going to rename it ‘x’”. Or ‘chocolate’. Or ‘©’. The biggest problem most of my chemistry students had wasn’t with chemistry, it was with not knowing that you could solve for [HCO[sub]3[/sub][sup]-[/sup]] That’s true and I think it goes along with my main point. Half the trouble I have in teaching math (practical math in a tech ed environment) is convincing the students that what they are learning is a skill unto itself and not a stepping stone to a harder and harder skill that they’re eventually going to fail at. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/53 "2019-06-12T17:53:26Z")
> [@Lancia](#): > > …So I think high school math curriculums need to be completely axed and re-created from scratch using real-world math concepts and teaching students what they need to know to actually function in society. If they need calculus or trigonometry for their career, they can learn it in college. Take out that mandatory pre-calc class and add in a “how to compute and file your taxes” class. The 2014 revision to the GED test took a couple steps in that direction, but did not go nearly far enough IMO. As an engineer and a former prep school chemistry/physics instructor, I am biased, but the statement that “\*f they need calculus or trigonometry for their career, they can learn it in college” is terrible advice, IMHO. An engineering student needs as much math as they can get _before_ they get to college, preferably through calculus. If they haven’t even had trigonometry or pre-calc in high school, they will have a very difficult time in college – and will likely flunk out before the end of their freshman year. _Any_ student taking an introductory chemistry or physics class (so-called “college-level,” even though it may actually be taken in high school) needs a good grasp of algebra before taking the class. Finally, a first-year college physics course for engineers requires that they either have taken (or are taking) first-year calculus. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/54 "2019-06-12T18:08:47Z")
I guess the BBC has been reading the SDMB. Related article here: [What's the right age to quit maths? - BBC News](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48550862?ns_source=facebook&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_mchannel=social&ocid=socialflow_facebook) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/55 "2019-06-12T18:36:29Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > I guess the BBC has been reading the SDMB. > > Related article here: [What's the right age to quit maths?](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48550862?ns_source=facebook&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_mchannel=social&ocid=socialflow_facebook) From that article: > [@](#): > > young people in the US must take maths until they leave school Cite? > [@](#): > > Current guidelines demand that every young American study geometry and trigonometry, plus two years of algebra. Cite? > [@](#): > > Prof Hacker, who expands on this view in his book _The Math Myth and Other STEM Delusions_, describes himself as a “numbers person”. But most people, he claims, are not. > > “There are about 7% of human beings who have a kind of natural aptitude for math,” he notes. “For the rest, it’s sheer torture, for no purpose.” Oh, that guy. What a maroon! When that book came out a few years ago, there were plenty of criticsms of it, including in _The Atlantic_ ([Debunking the Myths Behind ‘The Math Myth’](https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/06/the-math-myth/485852/)), _Slate_ ([It Doesn’t Add Up](https://slate.com/technology/2016/03/andrew-hackers-the-math-myth-is-a-great-example-of-mathematics-illiteracy.html)), > [@](#): > > Hacker’s book has so many problems in both substance and form that it’s hard to take his thesis seriously. I kept track of errors, unreferenced claims, and misleading arguments as I read The Math Myth, and I found so many that I’m halfway tempted to publish an annotated edition of the book. and [here on the SDMB](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=785782). ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/56 "2019-06-12T21:19:51Z")
I liked math and always thought it was unfair that I had to take English classes (which I did not like) every year but the students that liked English more than math only had to take a single math class. Grades were not the issue, I did well in most classes and when I did not there were external factors in play. On the ACT, I actually got a perfect score in English, and a lower (but still fairly exceptional) score in math. I just couldn’t stand the classes. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/57 "2019-06-12T21:20:59Z")
One year of math was all that was required for us to graduate. I think the class was called “General Math”. I took Algebra One (failed a couple of grading periods but got by with a C-), Geometry (C+/B-) and Algebra Two (needed daily tutoring to get a D-). Kids in our county have to take math every year in high school. I’m not down with that. Our younger son had already taken Precalc going into his senior year, because he took Algebra One in eighth grade. He crashed and burned when forced to take Calc, and would have failed if his older brother hadn’t tutored him. Three years sounds about right, with the option to go more slowly. I assume that moving more slowly would probably mean four years of math. I’m guessing that if I had gone at a pace that worked for me I might have actually learned the material for a year and a half or so of Algebra. My struggles didn’t mess up my SAT and ACT scores much. My math scores were lower, but not by that much. Unfortunately, my decent test scores convinced teachers that I just wasn’t trying. My hypothesis is that I’m very good at recognizing wrong answers. If I had needed to explains my answers, as is required on the PARCC that our kids had to take, I would have probably been up the creek. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/58 "2019-06-12T22:26:15Z")
When I was a high school student in the 70’s, we had to take Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry. Trig, Calculus, ad College Algebra, as well as Statistics, were optional. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/59 "2019-06-13T13:12:01Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > 1. How many years of HS math were you required to have? > > 2. How many years of HS math do you think we should require? > > 3. Would you prefer HS students take more practical math courses like financial math over math with more scientific applications like geometry? 1. I was required to have 4 years of math, in Illinois in the late 90s. 2. I think students should take 4 years of math. But more should be available. No reason an interested student shouldn’t be able to take multiple math courses per semester. 3. Calculation courses should be separate from math courses. Math isn’t calculation. Math is how you figure out what to calculate. And finance isn’t math either. It is still a good idea to teach it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373/60 "2019-06-13T13:28:39Z")
I think there should be 3 years of math, but the emphasis should be put on “business math” and “probability and statistics”. No one, and I mean NO ONE, who is not involved in a math intensive or science field, ever uses their Algebra much less Calculus. We do, however, use business related math. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-of-high-school-math-do-students-need/835373.md?page=4)