Pick your own debate!

I thank Kleptin for his response, as well. 1. Precalculus does not cover much more new material. On my opponent's first link, Algebra II and Geometry together completely cover the first 14 of the 23 Precal objectives. On my opponent's second link, Algebra II and Geometry together completely cover the first 22 of the 25 Precal objectives. On my opponent's third link, the General ideas are mostly covered from Algebra to Algebra II; the Complex numbers, Conic Sections, Exponents, and Logarithms are Algebra II; and Functions are Algebra and Algebra II. My opponent speaks of greater detail; however, in class, I am not seeing too much greater detail. On these pages, I am not seeing too much greater detail. I just looked over the Precal explanation for Logarithms (http://www.themathpage.com...), and I already learned all of this in Algebra II. This is not "greater detail." It's the exact same thing. My opponent claims that my school might be at fault. However, that means that either Algebra II went into too much detail (wouldn't be too surprised), which means that I should be able to skip Precal rather than Calculus AB; or my Precal class isn't going into as much detail as it should, which is actually kind of alarming. I'm actually in the most advanced Precal class in my school, and my area is known to have some of the best schools around. If our Precal class isn't teaching enough, then all of the rural schools in America definitely aren't going to be doing any better, which means that for them, Precal is also just review. 2. Precalculus is impractical outside of a specific scope. My opponent claims that people who suddenly decide that they like science would be at a loss if they did not take Precal; therefore, everybody should be compelled to take Precal. However, he assumes that the students are all going to college in the distant future to choose a career, potentially in science. For one thing, not everybody wants to go to college. Only half of all students actually go to college (http://tinyurl.com...). Precal is usually taken in 12th grade by students who don't take advanced math, so if they've already decided that they aren't going to go to college, and would rather go to a trade school or some other profession, so forcing a student into Precalculus would be pointless. Students forced into Precal often don't pay much attention anyway. A person with an interest in science should probably take Precal, but people with other interests shouldn't have to. An interest in science probably would have developed in middle school or junior high; 12th grade is a bit late. 3. Precalculus is inconvenient for some. My opponent claims that I cannot take Precalculus with only knowledge of Algebra II. However, I am currently taking Precalculus, and my highest math course before that was Algebra II, so I don't really understand what my opponent is saying. My opponent admits that I could take Calculus without taking Precalculus. Therefore, why stop me from skipping Precalculus and taking Calculus? I did the exact same thing for Pre-Algebra and Algebra, and the first month of Calculus would just review the basics of Precalculus anyway. The Summary: 1. Most of the topics of Precalculus actually were from Algebra II, and in my class, I have seen little actual complication. 2. Why would I have to show Precal to be useful to skip it and move on to Calculus? Besides, even with some new material in Precal, it would be reviewed in Calculus. 3. Impracticality: A. A student not taking Precal in high school would consequently not take it in college, because either he chose not to go to college, or he wanted to be an author, a lawyer, a politician, a trucker, a juggler, whatever. B. A student could easily review the few applications of Precal relevant to his own profession of choice on his own time, ultimately using up less time than an entire class would. C. 12th graders have to have some idea of what they want to do in the future. College is only a year away. If 12th graders are all undecided, then how could they just magically make up their minds by freshman year in college? D. A student could take other classes that require intense thinking that are actually relevant to the career that they want. E. I believe that the basic essentials of math that everybody just has to know to get anywhere in life should be compulsory. Precalculus is not necessary to get anywhere in life. Sure, it's necessary for some things, but that doesn't mean that everybody should be forced to have a chance to take it. In conclusion, Precal is still largely review, forcing students to take it when they don't need it is impractical, and my opponent has not come up with a real reason as to why I should not be allowed to skip Precalculus as I did Pre-Algebra. Thank you.