Keeping tabs on their purchases. Many people these days use calculators, often in their phones, to make basic math transactions. (Express-Times file photo) RoseMarie Mazza Bauer's proposal to make ...

The Feb. 3 opinion piece, "Who Needs Remediation?," contains this sentence: "We now recognize that most people do not need to be fluent in advanced algebra in order to function well in our society.” ...

A recent opinion column in the Quad-City Times highlighted reasons why algebra is not necessary to be taught in schools; if basic math is equivalent to English literacy, then algebra is equivalent to ...

I'm responding to RoseMarie Mazza Bauer's April 5 letter, "Algebra was a hindrance to my career." I attended a Catholic grammar school in New York. In the eighth grade, we were offered the opportunity ...

A recent letter writer states “cursive is more useful than algebra” and cites the need to sign a check as justification for schools continuing to teach cursive writing. Today”s students will not be ...

Maybe it was the distractions of the early ’70s, or perhaps just my clouded adolescent mind, but in high school I hated algebra. All those X’s and Y’s; it was as dry as dust, so removed from the ...

Two apparently disjoint subjects discussed in the same issue – quantum uncertainty and the Riemann hypothesis – have a surprising and important mathematical connection. Louis de Branges’s purported ...

I must take exception to Ray French's comments on "Algebra wastes students' time" [Letters, April 14]. Whether you know it or not, virtually everyone must use some form of algebra every day. You ...