I can see your point, you don't need algebra to pick fruit!

what good is algebra? I never took it, 2 son's never took it & we all have had good jobs that we didn't need it.

This is such a great idea (sarcasm here)!. If students can't meet the standards just lower the standards! If they can't read or write a sentence should we lower those standards too? Actually, after seeing the way some people write and spell who have supposedly graduated from high school, I don't think there are any standards. And we wonder why our country is going downhill..... This might be a part of it - poor education because we have poor standards. Good forbid anyone get an F - that might hurt their poor little egos and mommy and daddy will get mad at the school for not making sure their kid passes. When I was in school, my parents expected me to get honor roll grades and if I slacked off and didn't get them, I got put on restriction so I had plenty of time to focus on my school work. No one lowered the school standards just because I wanted to goof off instead of doing my homework and applying myself. Math has always been hard for me and in college I had to go to the tutoring center every day to get extra help but I passed that class with an A because I worked hard for it. Kids these days need to get the message that it takes work to succeed and that nothing is owed to them. Personally, we aren't doing kids a favor when we coddle them and make excuses for them. Personal responsibility and accountability have really gone down the toilet and as a society we are paying for it with undereducated kids who expect life to just hand them everything.

Kids today should have no problem passing Algebra or any other math class these days, they are using calculators in classes and have been for over 15 years. I admit that I hated Algebra, but back in the 'dark ages' I took it, without the assistance of that calculator (there were no calculators then), and passed it. I took/passed Geometry, Trig and Calculus too. The Govt keeps claiming we need to get back to the top of the global list of educated students but all we're doing is creating more dumbing down of students today.

Yes, it's a little hard to pass algebra when you're having a problem just learning english!