I always thought phrases like "algebra 2" were signs of somebody who doesn't know very much. Is there some intrinsic "twoness" of it? Does it mean anything that you have supposedly spent a year of it already, and now it is the second year? Would not the topics of the second year vary from school to school?
Similarly, "pre"-calculus. It came before calculus. Does that then include the ability to tie my shoes? I learned it before calculus.
When I took math classes in college it all made more sense. OK, you have course sequences, where you look at one thing one semester, another thing the next. But that was always a recommendation; you could take them out of their numbered order. And usually the title of the class was a topic, not just a number.
Agreed. Really, middle/high school level algebra ought to be called "simplifying equations" or "solving for a variable" because real math majors know that a college level algebra course is worlds apart and middle/high school teachers should be shot for letting their students think that they are competent at anything more complicated than balancing a checkbook. Similarly, pre-calc ought to be "concepts that we think you ought to be familiar with before you take calculus because you need to have a fundamental understanding of these concepts before you can do anything useful in math because, trust us on this, it will be nice to have these tricks in your toolbox of knowledge," but I suppose that is just too long so they kept it at pre-calculus.
Similarly, "pre"-calculus. It came before calculus. Does that then include the ability to tie my shoes? I learned it before calculus.
When I took math classes in college it all made more sense. OK, you have course sequences, where you look at one thing one semester, another thing the next. But that was always a recommendation; you could take them out of their numbered order. And usually the title of the class was a topic, not just a number.