Students need more access to STEM classes
Dr. Martin Luther King was important in the struggle for economic opportunity as well as the fight against segregation based on race. For many years before the implementation of civil rights legislation good-paying jobs of all kinds were denied to people of color despite excellent qualifications.
After Dr. King's murder,e qual employment opportunities became possible for all kinds of Americans. However, a new form of discrimination now exists in American public high schools by denying average level or slightly above students the opportunity to enroll in at least an algebra, trigonometry-based high school physics and/or chemistry course.
The mathematical foundations for successful completion of higher education career programs lead to good-paying lifetime employment in STEM (science, technology, engineering or mathematics) or medical fields.
Every morning as a retired high school physics. chemistry and mathematics teacher, I often go for coffee at fast food or gourmet coffee establishments. Sadly, I find recent college graduates with degrees in psychology, business, art music and film, to name a few, working for about $10 per hour as cashiers, baristas, etc.
In my work with even mathematically weak average and above IQ students, I have found that many of these previously rejected physics and/or chemistry students can learn the mathematical foundations necessary for success in STEM or medical career programs in higher education provided that a great deal of mathematics remediation may be needed.
In this way many more American high schoolers may have access to good paying lifetime employment opportunities now beyond their reach due to blatant arbitrary discrimination by high school administrators throughout the country.
Stewart Brekke
Downers Grove