This is a response to the comment that sheldan left late yesterday, about the usefulness of learning math in school. It’s funny; I was just doing some baking, and because I’m on a diet (yes, I know, those two things do NOT go together :\) I started calculating the calories for the recipe, and without my grade school arithmetic, I would never have been able to do so. I had to figure out things like, if there is 16 calories in 5 mL of sugar, then how many calories are in 250 mL: 16/5 = x/250. Thus, I concede the fact that advanced arithmetic may in fact not be such a great calamity! However, I maintain that units like trigonometry do nothing more for the average person than lower grades (and self esteem.) I guarantee that I have not thought about, let alone made use of, the concept of a cosine since my graduation. And I’m sorry to bring it up after you mentioned how it annoys you, but as far as I’m concerned, the quadratic formula is a prime example of how little such ultra-advanced math matters in the real world. Seriously. Is there anybody with an IQ of less than 180 who understands that thing??
That being said, I wish that my teachers had made more of an effort to expound upon the many legitimate uses of math in the real world, rather than simply bombarding me with terrifying combinations of numbers and letters. Maybe then I would appreciate it more.
I thought about what you said about English class, too: reading ‘Beowulf’ is not an activity that is going to resonate with a lot of people beyond high school. Nor, I suppose, is dissecting sentences to the point where they are unrecognisable. Maybe all teachers just need to work on making their curriculum more applicable to life beyond the blackboard. I think that a bit of reform could make school as a whole a much more pleasant experience for a lot of people.
Oh, and as for today’s comic: looking up information on the Internet is NOT thinking!! No matter what they make the next generations learn in school, they should make them learn it WITHOUT reliance on technology.
jaxxxon58 about 10 years ago
Yeah – I am thinking about not visiting these folks for awhile.
erin.adamic Premium Member about 10 years ago
This is a response to the comment that sheldan left late yesterday, about the usefulness of learning math in school. It’s funny; I was just doing some baking, and because I’m on a diet (yes, I know, those two things do NOT go together :\) I started calculating the calories for the recipe, and without my grade school arithmetic, I would never have been able to do so. I had to figure out things like, if there is 16 calories in 5 mL of sugar, then how many calories are in 250 mL: 16/5 = x/250. Thus, I concede the fact that advanced arithmetic may in fact not be such a great calamity! However, I maintain that units like trigonometry do nothing more for the average person than lower grades (and self esteem.) I guarantee that I have not thought about, let alone made use of, the concept of a cosine since my graduation. And I’m sorry to bring it up after you mentioned how it annoys you, but as far as I’m concerned, the quadratic formula is a prime example of how little such ultra-advanced math matters in the real world. Seriously. Is there anybody with an IQ of less than 180 who understands that thing??
That being said, I wish that my teachers had made more of an effort to expound upon the many legitimate uses of math in the real world, rather than simply bombarding me with terrifying combinations of numbers and letters. Maybe then I would appreciate it more.
I thought about what you said about English class, too: reading ‘Beowulf’ is not an activity that is going to resonate with a lot of people beyond high school. Nor, I suppose, is dissecting sentences to the point where they are unrecognisable. Maybe all teachers just need to work on making their curriculum more applicable to life beyond the blackboard. I think that a bit of reform could make school as a whole a much more pleasant experience for a lot of people.
Oh, and as for today’s comic: looking up information on the Internet is NOT thinking!! No matter what they make the next generations learn in school, they should make them learn it WITHOUT reliance on technology.