Abstract
What should the algebra curriculum look like for preschool and primary-grade learners? I posed this lead-in question to a session in a mathematics methodology class for preservice early childhood and elementary teachers. Some of the teachers' answers indicated uncertainty. They gave vague, tentative answers about working with sequences and solving for unknowns. One participant's response resonated for others in the class: “I had a terrible time in high school algebra. I struggled to memorize the formulas for solving equations just as I had struggled to memorize my addition facts, multiplication tables, and long division in elementary school. What I remember of algebra, I would not wish on any child.” Other classmates murmured recognition of these feelings. Still another classmate added, “I got algebra. I even did well in trigonometry, but that doesn't mean that I understand algebra well enough to help children get it.”
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