Why is it that Geometry has proofs but Algebra doesn't? Isn't this setup just a peculiarity of the American system?
Algebra I doesn't, but Algebra II may have some proofs, depending on a particular teacher. The problem is that in many states the sequence is Algebra I - Geometry - Algebra II, so Geometry is the first class where students stumble upon proofs
This is not just a peculiarity, unfortunately, this is one of the several major flaws in American math education.
FWIW, when I was in school, in America, in the Dark Ages, there were a ton of proofs in Algebra II. Algebra I was too far in my past for me to remember anything, but my ds was first introduced to proofs in Algebra I, here and now in the not-so-dark ages.
polarbear
ps - I tutored students in high school math for years as volunteer outreach in my community, and honestly, there seemed to be a huge mind-block about geometry - I still haven't figured it out - but I was always in demand simply because I liked geometry - and many of the extremely capable professionals I worked with who were also volunteering were convinced they couldn't "do geometry" - yet these were very sharp individuals, mostly with a background in engineering. It would have been no harder (jmo) for them to spend a few minutes looking at a geometry problem to remember how to do it than it was for them to look back at an algebra II problem, yet they were convinced that they just didn't understand geometry and didn't want to try.I *know* these folks were bright people who graduated from highly respected schools of engineering and sciences so I know they'd taken Geometry 1 and most likely didn't get a low grade in it - so why the mindset? I even had high school math *teachers* who got excited when I was willing to tutor geometry because they thought they weren't capable of answering the students questions. Sorry for the ramble… it just always confounded me wondering how this mindset developed
