The joy of algebra

IS there a conspiracy afoot? Could it be media bias? Terry Prone (Opinion, August 8) devotes a whole paragraph to an egregious slur on algebra. “Anything,” she writes, “would be better than algebra.”

This was bad enough till I turned to Michael Moynihan (Championship 2011, August 8). In his seventh paragraph he talks about “postponing the headache of algebra for as long as we can”. Two attacks in the same newspaper on the same day. No wonder they have to hand out lollipops to students to interest them in maths with this kind of negativity floating about. Not appreciating algebra is like being deaf to the beauty of Bach or blind to the delights of Michelangelo.

Oliver Broderick