EPTBasically anything that makes you money, really. Learn it you lazy bastards.
Is Algebra Necessary? - Page 14
| Forum Index > General Forum |
|
Evangelist
1246 Posts
Basically anything that makes you money, really. Learn it you lazy bastards. | ||
|
sparC
Germany162 Posts
i couldn't help but feeling an agenda behind it.. well i guess, after evolution, it's math's (okay algebra's) turn now.. what's next? physics? | ||
|
musclemagician
United States20 Posts
| ||
|
Psychobabas
2531 Posts
| ||
|
Groog
127 Posts
On July 29 2012 19:27 JoeSchmoe wrote: point me to credible studies where learning elementary algebra has lead to measurable increases in a person's logic and reasoning abilities that helped contribute to their success later on in their life regardless of career path. also we're talking about algebra. do not generalize this into mathematics in general. I'm not going to spend my free time looking for an article that might or might not exist. It is common knowledge and if you had any basic knowledge of neurology you would know that continuously stimulating a certain part of the brain leads to an increase of neural pathways in that area of the brain (while it's still in developement, ofc. i.e. <21years). So, once you've learned basic calculus, you have to move over to algebra to continue this stimuli, because learning advanced calculus is really pointless unless it's part of your future career. | ||
|
tuestresfat
2555 Posts
| ||
|
JoeSchmoe
Canada2058 Posts
On July 29 2012 19:40 Toxi78 wrote: and in what world am i gonig to use litterature, history, geography when i work? i fucking know how to spell and write, i know my birthdate and who is the president, and i can find my house ezpz with my GPS. with this kind of reasoning we're not going to go very far. whoever wrote this article is an idiot. the redundancy of algebra is just an opinion of the author, it could be any subject yet people place so emphasis on this fact. it's hard to argue against the bias of the considerable majority of TLers here that come from a scientific/mathematic background but the more important issue lies with the linearity of our education system. There should be an option that allows you to focus on fields pertaining to your interest at a much younger age. of course there will be students who are unsure about their future in which they are encouraged to dip their hands in various fields much like what we have today. honestly, there's a ton of shit from high school that either I've completely forgotten or never given a second thought to and yet our people will insist that it has helped subconsciously without us realizing. has it? maybe. do i think so? no, i think my time would've been better invested in developing my interests but that's just me. | ||
|
Sethronu
United Kingdom450 Posts
| ||
|
Tom Cruise
Denmark482 Posts
On July 29 2012 19:36 PatouPower wrote: Seriously, we are talking about algebra: the most basic thing in math and probably the most useful in daily life. We are not talking about Calculus here, only about something really basic and easy to learn. I mean, math is probably the hardest obligatory class in high school and it's still really easy to pass, so if you can't even pass that, maybe you don't deserve a diploma in the first place. it puzzles me that when we're talking about education, how the majority in this thread seem to neglect the fact that not everyone are necessarily very receptive in relation to mathematics, and by that assume the subject is more important than other subjects, simply by defining it through its level of difficulty. in highschool i failed math. now i'm in college and quite honestly, i still don't get it. though i still get b+/- in every other subject (chinese, cultural understanding, managerial economics, marketing communication, innovation, psychology, philosophy, business law, social studies and contemporary history, just to name a few) now, if u ask me, i'm pretty fucking ok with failing math considering how well i do in every other subject, lol now, u might ask urself "how come ur so fucking bad at math, tom cruise", well, truth is i don't give two flying fucks about it, because i find it boring and uninteresting. that of course is a stance that i've taken after i failed, so atleast i've tried, and quite honestly, i wish i had spent half as many hours on doing something else than attempting to learn mathematics, cuz holy shit that was a waste of time (considering i never learned anything) -- not because it's "useless" but i suppose it's because it wouldn't be "cost effecient" (lolz) compared to what i want to become when i grow up, and how much fun i have with the other subjects. ty | ||
|
Loanshark
China3094 Posts
You don't have to like it. You don't have to excel or be proficient at it. You just have to pass. | ||
|
JoeSchmoe
Canada2058 Posts
On July 29 2012 20:00 Groog wrote: I'm not going to spend my free time looking for an article that might or might not exist. It is common knowledge and if you had any basic knowledge of neurology you would know that continuously stimulating a certain part of the brain leads to an increase of neural pathways in that area of the brain (while it's still in developement, ofc. i.e. <21years). Not sure if a person who can't distinguish between neurology and neuropsychology/neurophysiology should be educating anyone on what is common knowledge. | ||
|
b3n3tt3
595 Posts
User was temp banned for this post. | ||
|
erazerr
Australia86 Posts
| ||
|
paralleluniverse
4065 Posts
On July 29 2012 20:17 erazerr wrote: Algebra helps your brain to learn, even if algebra itself isn't necessary. This line has probably been repeated around 20 times in this thread. No one has provided any evidence or source for this claim. | ||
|
Deadlyhazard
United States1177 Posts
| ||
|
Nacl(Draq)
United States302 Posts
Algebra applies to everyday situations, 1+1=2 is basic algebra. x-1=1 I don't want to have to be in a situation where the cashier at a grocery store hands me incorrect cash and says something like, "oh... the machine doesn't say how much i should give you anymore... Do you have a calculator?" Or having someone try and figure out how to split 30 dollars among 12 people. Why do we force art on kids? Why do we force keyboard classes. Why do we force gym on people? Why do most countries teach kids about safe sex, condoms, birth control, how babies are made. Those don't apply to everyone. I'm sure kids will learn about that stuff if they're really interested in it. (Some people want to grow up to be priests and won't have sex.) | ||
|
Aerisky
United States12129 Posts
On July 29 2012 20:17 b3n3tt3 wrote: Lol they're americans, of course algebra is hard  why so bad-mannered?Maybe it's my bias in thinking that algebra isn't very difficult, but I'm not even particularly "good at math" in general. Mathematics encompasses a variety of fields of which algebra is only one, but overall I'm not particularly good at it and to be fair, rudimentary algebra is definitely not a very advanced field. It can be very useful for very simple tasks and deciding to removing it from the curriculum would not only leave students with a lack of mathematical training, it could leave them with a lack of life skills...and very simple ones at that. It definitely says more about the system than about the students or the material, I feel. | ||
|
DoubleReed
United States4130 Posts
But this is typical idiotic American educational thinking: If our students are failing because of a standard, rather than try to better our educational methods and teaching, let's just make it super easy on the students and pass them anyway. Who cares if they learned anything in school? Our passing rates are up! It's terrible. It's a disgusting disservice that we're doing to our children. Getting an education is actually supposed to mean something. By lowering the standards you aren't making education easier on students, you are simply reducing what "education" means. The real thing that's important to day-to-day life is understanding rates of change. That's Calculus. Everything about our math education is a stepping stone to get average people to learn Calculus, as it is one of the most powerful tools we have in almost everything we do. So yes, we need Algebra because we want as many people to understand Calculus as possible. | ||
|
Crushinator
Netherlands2138 Posts
| ||
|
SnipedSoul
Canada2158 Posts
Expecting universities to teach everything is kinda dumb, imo. University is for advanced education, not basic algebra. | ||
| ||
