Pick your own debate!

Now, although my opponent has made many legitimate points, most of my opponent's arguments can be reduced down to the issue of practicality. Here is a list of my opponent's arguments: 1. Precalculus does not cover much more new material 2. Precalculus is impractical outside of a specific scope. 3. Precalculus is inconvenient for my opponent The first issue: My opponent provides a source that involves Precalculus applications. These sources show a much more detailed list of what actually must be learned. . http://www.math.ucdavis.edu... . http://www.themathpage.com... . http://mathworld.wolfram.com... Precalculus goes into much greater detail on functions, polynomials, and trigonometry. These details actually define the importance of Precalculus as a refining tool that joins basic algebra with concept formation used in the more applied sciences. There is a vast amount of new material that is not covered in Algebra 2. In fact, every single topic in algebra 2 is magnified into much more complicated detail in Precalculus. Whether or not Precalculus is useful is another issue, but we can certainly rule out my opponent's unfounded assertion that there is little to no new information given. Perhaps it is his school that is at fault for that. The second issue: While my opponent is right in saying that many of his "applications" can be trusted to those who decide to go into certain professions, I would like to point out that the time of choosing what profession you wish to go into is in college, not in high school. Those who wish to pursue careers in science will find that their mathematics requirements are quite stringent. And this applies to an enormous variety of fields. If students were not given Precalculus, then they would be severely lacking several years later should they decide that they like science. This is in no way a minor thing. Anyone hoping to apply to any field, be it computer science, medicine, biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, anything besides the liberal arts, would have to fall upon Precalculus. Furthermore, not making Precalculus compulsory may turn students away from a particular path. In the interests of time, a student may decide not to go into a scientific field because he lacks the background in mathematics, of which precalculus is key. The third issue: As for my opponent, I will basically disregard his final point as it is nothing more than an assertion that it inconveniences him. You might be able to do Calculus without taking precalculus, but you cannot do precalculus only with knowledge of algebra 2. So, let us summarize. 1. Precalculus is not as simple as my opponent declares. It reviews material from Algebra II and goes into much more complicated topics. It is not simply a rehashed version of Algebra II so my opponent's first point can be discarded. 2. We cannot discard Precalculus simply because my opponent's schedule would be inconvenienced. My opponent must provide proof that Precalculus really is as useful as it is before he can say that it inconveniences his schedule. Until he does that, then my opponent's third point can be discarded. 3. My opponent's only viable argument is that Precalculus is actually impractical. Let's go into this point in depth. *** A. Precalculus is absolutely key in all fields of science. Whether as prerequisite knowledge for mandatory classes in college or in its application. A student should not hold off until college to choose to take Precalculus. B. Precalculus is a widely varied course but every field of science will call upon at least 2-3 applications of precalculus. It would waste class time to go over those necessary precalculus skills in class. Students should have learned it before. C. Mastering Precalculus keeps the door open for students to pursue further education in the sciences, instead of closing the door because they opt out at an age where they are unsure about what they want to do in the future. D. Not only are applications of Precalculus rampant in the scientific fields, but the mastery of using concepts, of manipulating the numbers, of thinking according to a given field of study, help to build a student's thinking skills in other ways. The greatest application of precalculus is giving the student a field of intense thinking, exercising the mind. E. My opponent's arguments can form a slippery slope. For any compulsory class, there will always be a lack of application for some professions. If we follow his logic, then we should not make education compulsory at all. Unless my opponent wishes to argue for a return to the apprenticeship system, then we must discard his argument that Precalculus should not be compulsory because not all fields require Precalculus applications. Thank you.