RE: Math Educations: who needs it, how much and when?
July 23, 2014 at 2:43 pm
(This post was last modified: July 23, 2014 at 2:44 pm by Bibliofagus.)
Watched the video. And I kinda agree with the conclusions.
When I was in high school I scored straight A's at math at some point. But I didn't like it, so I tried dropping it. My parents agreed with me...
The school however didn't. First I got invited for some talks, they called my parents, and when that didn't work they just - accidentally - listed me for math. If I didn't show up, I'd get punished :S My grades dropped like crazy, and not only the math ones.
This joke cost me a year of my life and a lot of friends. And the thing was: I knew why my grades were so high in math, and I knew it was not because I had any special math abilities. All that had happened was that I stopped to try to understand - why - math is the way it is, and approach it in a more pragmatic way: Just learn to recognize the patterns in the exercise and remember the steps you have to take to get to the correct answer.
On the other hand I have a friend who teaches geography. Over here that subject involves sociology, anthropology and it takes the kids into psychics and cosmology. On the latter subjects he uses comics he draws himself to get them involved. He told me he started doing it because most of the stuff he teaches can be shared in the form of stories... Except the physics. So he started making stories out of it himself.
When I was in high school I scored straight A's at math at some point. But I didn't like it, so I tried dropping it. My parents agreed with me...
The school however didn't. First I got invited for some talks, they called my parents, and when that didn't work they just - accidentally - listed me for math. If I didn't show up, I'd get punished :S My grades dropped like crazy, and not only the math ones.
This joke cost me a year of my life and a lot of friends. And the thing was: I knew why my grades were so high in math, and I knew it was not because I had any special math abilities. All that had happened was that I stopped to try to understand - why - math is the way it is, and approach it in a more pragmatic way: Just learn to recognize the patterns in the exercise and remember the steps you have to take to get to the correct answer.
On the other hand I have a friend who teaches geography. Over here that subject involves sociology, anthropology and it takes the kids into psychics and cosmology. On the latter subjects he uses comics he draws himself to get them involved. He told me he started doing it because most of the stuff he teaches can be shared in the form of stories... Except the physics. So he started making stories out of it himself.
