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Remember when teachers told u math was important
- Thread starter Ryaaan14
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No; you'd have to be in college for another decade. It's a skill you built up over your childhood and developmental years.
Relentless 757
Member
Ah makes sense. I have to learn calculus-based statistics and probability at some point, I can see series working with it I suppose
Are you kidding me? I've been avoiding doing that for decades. At least I never corrected anybody for it.
The most memorable event when I was taking Ancient and Medieval History was when we did the Roman Empire and my teacher showed the graffiti written on the bathroom walls.
If you didn't know the origin, you would have thought it was stuff found today. It humanized the period and made the class realize that no matter the time period, people still had behaviors we can relate to today.
High level statistics has a lot of calculus. Like integrating probability functions and such.
entremet
Member
The most practical math is percentages. Percentages are everywhere.
From your taxes, to your mortgage rate, to figuring out business expenses, and so on.
In personal finance using percentages is much easier than other methods of figuring stuff out.
Housing should never be more than 2/3 of take home pay. Save at least 15 percent of pretax income. And many other rules of thumb.
From your taxes, to your mortgage rate, to figuring out business expenses, and so on.
In personal finance using percentages is much easier than other methods of figuring stuff out.
Housing should never be more than 2/3 of take home pay. Save at least 15 percent of pretax income. And many other rules of thumb.
Hypereides
Member
Math is pretty important.. its the study of learning, identifying patterns, structures and orders.
I remember so little of Algebra 2 by the point I reached college that they might as well have never covered it.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Yeah, why the fuck are we taught the basics in life? Fuck.
wait are you serious?
Oh I get it,
You watched that stupid fucking music video, "Don't Stay In School".
Relentless 757
Member
I can see it now..."Here shat Bartholomew"..."Hither to 'round beginnings of dark on the first day for a gay time"
everyday math
Banned
I think it would help if schools taught math better. They have so much to teach in such a short time. Kids lose interest fast and burnout. I think teachers burnout somewhat as well.
At the high school level, they actually teach very little actual content. You blow through 4 years of concepts in a single semester in college. Most of the time is dedicated to practice, and letting the ideas sink in. Which is a good thing.
Same here.
Schools are teachiing math better, it's called common core math.
Even now with all the calculators, I wish more people can grasp basic math. First they tip it wrong in the calculator or don't even know how to do it when it's a bit more complicated than very basic math. Second, once they have a result, they don't even have the slightest idea whether a result is right or wrong, because they've never learned math correctly and can't estimate shit.
While technology has rapidly advanced people haven't changed all that much in the last few thousand years. But that's the sort of thing that's hard to see without a proper history education.
I wish we spent more time focusing on the logical reasoning and problem solving that's in college level math. The power of math in explaining almost everything we can see in the universe is one of the greatest human accomplishments, and something that everyone should be a part of.
OP, have you noticed that you use, like, no high school stuff in your day to day life? The reasons we teach it to everybody are that these things represent the groundwork of all human knowledge, we don't know what people are going to do ahead of time, and because there are skills you build by doing those things that aren't directly taught. English helps you analyze text and express yourself (but almost no one needs to use Shakespeare). Science helps you understand how the world works and how to get information out of data (but almost no one needs to know that Cesium explodes in water). Math helps with logic and creative problem solving (but how many people need to know what a cosine is day to day)?
wintersheir
Banned
History at a high level isn't just memorizing facts; that's like saying that math is just memorizing your times tables or the quadratic equation. History is about detective work and analysis of data from contradictory, competing, and fragmentary sources. A historian's job would be way easier if there were objective records of the past, but every primary source has a bias and an agenda, and a historian has to sort through them to make sense of the past. These documents were made by a person with a much different experience and worldview than the modern reader, and can be full of different assumptions and omissions that you have to make sense of.
We're discovering new things daily about documents and artifacts that we've had for centuries simply because historical study has gotten better about incorporating researchers from a non-ivory tower background. So much of history is studying individual and cultural choices as well that have shaped the course of civilizations.
davepoobond
you can't put a price on sparks
Cursive was the biggest scam
Anyone who writes in cursive willingly is weird.
Anyone who writes in cursive willingly is weird.
I assume you're responding to my post. If you would like to discuss this further, then please explain to me how knowing history compares to the understanding, application, and knowledge synthesis of knowing math like I described in the Taxonomy.
Thelonelykoopa
Member
Well, because it gives a person an Idea in High School of whether or not that want to have a degree which heavily uses math. Not to mention it's needed for some Physics and Chem classes as well.
Without it there wouldn't be much in High School honestly.
Teaching math isn't just to get an answer. It helps develop logical thought and problem solving for many things in life. It's not the answer that's important, it's the thought process to get there that is the benefit.
It's the same thing when kids say they don't have to learn anything because they can just google it. Looking up something is not intelligence. A lack of common knowledge is just ignorance and a lack of awareness.
I've heard teachers say that tech dependence has just resulted in very poor logical thought and reasoning in students. Problem solving skills disappear when all they're relying on is tech to provide the easy answer.
It's the same thing when kids say they don't have to learn anything because they can just google it. Looking up something is not intelligence. A lack of common knowledge is just ignorance and a lack of awareness.
I've heard teachers say that tech dependence has just resulted in very poor logical thought and reasoning in students. Problem solving skills disappear when all they're relying on is tech to provide the easy answer.
CornBurrito
Member
You actually don't need to be that incredibly gifted at math for most STEM fields.
I was forced to write cursive through my elementary education (late 80s to mid 90s), but gave it up within a year or so of starting high school. When you can't even read your own notes, what's the point? Printing was slow at first, but I can now write fast enough that the legibility far outweighs any loss in speed.
You can forget calc after first year in a lot of programs, but you still regularly use grade 10-11 level math (plus basic parametric stats). You can't exactly cut 10 years worth of primary and secondary math and do well in STEM.
You can forget calc after first year in a lot of programs, but you still regularly use grade 10-11 level math (plus basic parametric stats). You can't exactly cut 10 years worth of primary and secondary math and do well in STEM.
Thelonelykoopa
Member
Yeah but imagine having to start from Algebra 1 in College (Which you can do of course) It would hold back your graduating(remember Eng courses have math Prerequisite) even more than engineering typically does.
I disagree because the complexity just doesn't seem comparable. At basic levels for both subjects, yes you are just memorizing facts in either math or history (like memorizing where George Washington was born versus counting numbers from 1 to 100). But in what way does complexity evolve with history compared to math? Once we progress to higher levels, you cannot perform math without inherent understanding. Meanwhile, you can write about a historical topic based off memorization of facts.
Ah, I see. Well that makes sense, yes. In that case, high level history requires the utilization of judgment and understanding come from knowledge of facts. That is similar to math.
I respect this.
I think maybe the difference between math and history is not as large as I thought earlier in this thread. Thanks for your inputs.
But considering math does evolve in a pace of complexity in a way that is just inconceivable, and considering math also includes heavy creativity and knowledge synthesis, I think maybe math is still a deeper subject of learning and complexity than history. Although there are similarities. Then again, I'm probably opinionated out of ignorance since I am not a historian.
Hyperactivity
Banned
I'm not quite sure it's that history can be "conquered by just rote memorization", but rather, that the way it's taught around schools allows for that and that impression.
I understand the point you're making. Math as a subject at the bare minimum requires understanding, and to an extent actual application. For many people however, history stays at memorization, even though there are higher levels to it
Yes, that's actually probably a better way of putting what I was trying to say. Thanks.
I want to reiterate that I love history. I am envious of people who got to study it in more detail than me.
First I'll mention that I remember seeing a study (I think it was posted on here somewhere) that found that people who have a strong fundamental understanding in math, regardless of their ultimate career, are much better off and have a better standard of life than those who don't.
For me, I think it's important that you have at least a sound understanding of algebra and geometry. In general, I think the more someone know about the world, how it works, why it works the way it does, makes for just better people.
For me, I think it's important that you have at least a sound understanding of algebra and geometry. In general, I think the more someone know about the world, how it works, why it works the way it does, makes for just better people.
Thelonelykoopa
Member
Yeah history isn't just rote memorization as it's more about coming to conclusion and trying to understand why something happens and the impacts of the dates you are memorizing.
WHOAguitarninja
Member
While some basic 'getting through life' classes would certainly be helpful, math is an incredibly important tool in many jobs (such as my own), and you can't wait until college to start learning it if you want to build a strong foundation.
Having taught many of them, today's high school students largely have shitty hand writing, shitty spelling, and shitty grammar. I blame texting and auto-correct.
Lumination
'enry 'ollins
As long as people keep buying lottery tickets, not enough people will have taken statistics.
Unmasked Ferret
Member
If you are a true red white and blue blooded American you had better well know that Teddy Roosevelt birthday is October 27th.
In all seriousness History is less about names and dates, and more about understanding why events happened, how those events impacted the time, and how those events have shaped us now. It's also about understanding how people thought in the past and how society had changed because of those thoughts.
There are many important lessons that studying history can give beyond just who was the president of the United States when the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, or the largest land empire ever was created by the mongols. Things like being able to fact check politicians, or even just having an understanding of why certain laws were passed and probably shouldn't be repealed; there are some great military strategies that can be learned, or background knowledge on global politics and foreign policy. There are also many things that studying your areas local history can teach you.
Sure not everyone needs to know that it isn't a great idea to invade Russia and an even worse idea to invade Russia and still be there during the winter, or that convincing the peseantry to eat potatoes could have potentially prevented a revolution or two, but that whole "learn from the mistakes of our forebears" thing really does apply to some. Also it is completely possible to work critical thinking skills into a classroom by asking questions like why is it a bad idea to try a fight a land battle in Russia during the winter, or what we're the major causes of the great depression, how could the stock market crash have been avoided and give examples of how the depression has had a lasting impact in today's legal policy. Many history courses also emphasize being able to analyze, and interpret documents and weigh various sources to create a new interpretation of past events.
I personally think history is quite important, I'm a little biased about the subject though.
M1ch04c4n0
Banned
OP sounds spoiled, entitled and ready for his McDonalds late shift.
All knowledge is good, math is the most important. Teach you to see the logic in the world.
All knowledge is good, math is the most important. Teach you to see the logic in the world.
Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn
Gun Animal
Member
this is the best post in the thread.
"what am I gonna use math for in the real world?"
"i dunno, but in this class you can use it to make videogames"
"holy shit"
Thelonelykoopa
Member
I feel the bigger issue is High Schools don't encourage you writing to be legible. I don't care about cursive but I feel there needs to be a bigger emphasis print clarity.
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