When and why did intermediate algebra become "precalculus" and then "calculus"?

Question

As a math lover and an Aspie, I appreciate accuracy in speech and thought. Recently I've noticed my clients refer to intermediate algebra as "precalculus". Sometimes they drop the "pre" and say they're in "calculus". Apparently the courses have begun introducing a few concepts of calculus, such as the difference quotient, into algebra, thus justifying the name.
Is calling it "precalculus" supposed to make the students buckle down and really learn algebra, so that they will be ready for calculus? Or does it just intimidate them, since they've always heard how hard calculus is? Do the students actually believe they're in "calculus"? Does calling it "precalculus" really motovate them to master algebra so that they will be ready for real calculus? When and why did they start calling it "precalculus"? Who started this misnomer? Could it be because "algebra" is an Arabic word and we're currently at war in the mideast?

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/client
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=aspie

Answer 1

Actually, I think that it's an outgrowth of result-oriented education. As you know, schools used to provide a certain amount of education to students which they could either learn or not, and the ones who didn't learn failed. Nowadays, schools choose certain educational targets that they want to meet, such as having x% of students pass calculus, and then modify the education their students receive to meet that goal. So when schools noticed they didn't get high enough passing rates through the normal algebra - geometry/trig - calculus sequence, they extended it to algebra I - algebra II - geometry - precalculus - calculus, under the theory that if the same material is introduced earlier and spaced over a longer period of time that students will have an easier time grasping it. This theory seems to be somewhat wrong -- the primary difficulty students have with mathematics is a lack of formal operational thinking, and that is a developmental issue, not one of how much education a child receives. Earlier exposure to the material will only serve to frustrate the students who haven't developed that sort of thinking yet and bore the ones that have.

That said, precalculus may seem like intermediate algebra, but at least in my school system it _is_ a higher level course -- even if it does repeat a lot of the old material. In fact, that was my primary frustration with mathematics in high school -- we would spend a good half of every course repeating the material for the people who hadn't gotten it the first hundred times. Anyway, I don't think that the word is a misnomer -- it really is supposed to be preparation for calculus and not just a third algebra course. The fact that the additional course will do nothing except further bore students seems to have simply been ignored.

Answer 2

It's like Algebra I, and II. There are a couple of things one must learn, or at least go over before learning real Calculus. Calculus is not very easy, especially when you haven't taken Pre-Calculus. I'm taking Calculus now, and my teacher sometimes goes over things too fast, but that's how we feel because we haven't learned the basics. Pre-Calculus must cover some of the things Calculus students do, but they might not be as challenging. Not everyone loves Math, so it would be hard to get students who don't to learn things fast, or be able to remember everything they've learned.

Answer 3

While it might be fashionable to label one's curriculum, I found it really didn't matter much until I hit college and had to endure the Calculus 1/Physics 1/Physics 1 Lab combination followed by the Calculus 2/Physics 2/ Physics 2 Lab combination followed by Statics/Dynamics with Differential Equations.

Nothing really matters until you have to learn and apply something at the same time.

Answer 4

This other person can inhabit your same body because that is what we do when we create personas around our spirit. We start to believe that we are the straight A student, who is popular, cute and has loads of friends, or the pimply, nerd, who walks the halls looking at the floor. We become these people fully, and they are not us at all, only impostors. We are pure divine love, god and goddess, manifested in human form.

Answer 5

Aspie? What? .. and, you have clients?? Teachers have "students", tutors have "tutees" .. lawyers have "clients". For someone who appreciates accuracy in speech, you don't make a whole lot of sense.