Originally Posted by tdvance

I remember teaching calculus how annoyed I was that so many students didn't have basic high-school algebra under their belts--a necessity for progressing in calculus--and I do know from looking at older high school math textbooks that they are getting a bit dumbed down as the years go on. For example, I went to High School about the time matrices and operations on matrices was taken out of standard high-school algebra fare. My math teacher was so angry he kept some of the old algebra books and passed them out so we could do the chapter on matrices.