Nothing? I’d argue that learning mathematics is good for people going through school but then again I’m no expert in education.
There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with having a classroom of students being taught a curriculum. It’s effective even if it’s inefficient. The execution is lacking for sure, but to suggest that none of it is good for students is a little dramatic.
Isn’t that about what I said? Of course the idea of children learning important topics in an organized fashion is decent. The objections I have are the forced social structures, mandatory attendance at risk of school or legal punishment, limited ability to specialize in topics or pick a curriculum, rigid schedules all day enforced with various punishments or humiliation including strict control of access to bathrooms, and in general the prison-like obsession with routines and schedules.
I’d add the fact that not everyone learns the same way, and while some people do well with lectures and note-taking, others would be better reading books alone, and others would be better in a discussion format. My experiences varied wildly. One major issue for me was that the strict scheduling and punitive obsessions didn’t work well with what was going on with my health and family life, but there’s little room for that. Personally I would have done much better to have not attended school at all. Each year was pretty much an excruciating review of things I learned from books 2 years before, combined with extensive peer and administration torture.
Really? The thing most people end up using the least in their lives beyond an elementary school level?
Math education is a crapshoot for most people. All it does is serve as a way to make them feel bad about themselves for not being interested in what people like you tell them to be interested in.
Thank god computers are putting math majors out to pasture.
No, I’d argue learning history and how to read is more important than anything else the school system provides. It’s what follows most of us throughout our entire lives.
Math and literacy are both fundamental and essential tools for a self sufficient adult. You don’t need to remember how to to apply the quadratic theorem or complete the square outside of high school for most jobs. You do need to remember how to read and basic concepts like compound interest or multiplication. People who don’t are ill prepared for life, not just adulthood.
beyond an elementary school level
Math and literacy are both fundamental and essential tools for a self sufficient adult.
Lol, the ironing.
