Why the fuck are people simplifying courses and saying things are useless? EVERYTHING is useful. Some things may appear useless but they are outdated when compared to modern day things.
People saying that art is useless…what the fuck do you people think movies, games, and cartoons are? Some directors and producers use a lot of the same things you learn in art class to convey thoughts and expressions without words. Character design, facial expressions, poses, clothing, color, how shapes are oriented on the scene, look at how they made the hobbits in Lord of the Rings look natural.
People saying that history is useless…what the fuck do you think the military studied to get to where they are today? What the fuck do you think law, finance, and politics came from? When you study history, you learn from past mistakes, learn how people reacted to events, and learn why we are in our current situation (any time period of any country).
People saying that studying language is useless…where the fuck did propaganda come from? By understanding language and conveying it in certain ways you can trick people, twist laws, solidify facts, etc. It is the basis of communication.
I don’t know anyone who says science isn’t important.
People saying certain branches of math are useless have probably not studied science. Don’t understand calculus? Good luck operating a nuclear power plant without physical chemistry which relies heavily on calculus. Don’t understand algebra? You’re not going to grasp anything else, even with examples of how they are applied in the “real world”.
Stay fucking free nigga. When my kids are trained in Advanced Math and are capable of going to any University they want, or persue any job they want, Ill be forever thankful that ignorant dumb shits like you chose to stay fucknig stupid because you didn’t see “practical applications”. thus providing less competition for my kids.
Don’t get rid of Algebra. It’s too useful in everyday lives. In addition, I support Discrete Math in high school. If you haven’t taken it, it’s a math classes that teaches logic, inductive/deductive reasoning, and writing proofs. I found it great for learning how to think through problems and being able to defend your statements.
I’d take math over learning the phallic symbols in Lord of the Flies. I have rarely used the info from that class in high school except to talk about how sexually deprived my teacher was to my classmates. Grammar and English syntax are better than a literature class.
I think the main problem is that people are being forced to specialize in what the country needs (more math/science people) and not what they want to do.
Eh, there’s really no guaranteed endgame for anyone though. We’ve all heard about the person with an advanced degree who’s homeless or working for minimum wage at some random job. Science and engineering aren’t strictly limited to people who are super good at math. Hell, based upon some of the manuals I’ve read for app and database servers, America could use more competent technical writers, because a lot of them read like shit.
I agree that people should have to take Algebra regardless of whether or not it’s “hard”. If I had to suffer though it, so should these little fucks. Math was never my strongest subject in HS, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t moonwalk out of that bitch waving my B plusses around like, “Look who passed bitches!”
no, just saying you better not expect to be a banker, engineer, programmer, etc etc etc. Be prepared to maybe learn a trade or work with your hands. But if algebra is too fucking hard, learning a trade will likely be too hard for you too.
also relevant anyone who says they are bad at math or hates it just have the wrong mindset. there’s a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. fixed mindset says that talent is innate and that if you’re not good at it, well you’re shit out of luck. the growth mindset just keeps working at a problem until they master it.
sorry this link has a quote from the bible (EWWWWW) but it explains succinctly what i’m talking about:
so what’s happening in schools is that the kids take these math classes, do badly, and then they think they are stupid and bad at math and it becomes self reinforcing. that’s not true. of course they’re going to do badly at it initially, math just like any other subject, is difficult to master. it takes work. but in today’s age of ez mode combos in mvc3, ultras in sf4, and repeatedly nerfed content in MMOs, every kid feels entitled to easily become gods while putting in zero effort. the teachers just need to encourage the students more and teach them to study harder. nerfing algebra is just gonna produce more crybaby scrubs.
There’s no reason why you can’take a little bit from column A and column B.
It does bother me to hear the engineers and company bagging on anything that isn’t strictly science related or shown to have obvious practical applications. Education should also be its own end, but that is a concept that is quickly dying, mostly at the hands of people who are completely ignorant and unwilling to learn about anything outside their own very myopic sphere of knowledge. The departments that have proven that they can generate more money from their research etc. hold all the cards.
I did 2 years of engineering before realizing I hated it and the elitist attitude that went along with it. I had decent grades, but I found it extremely limited in that there was no real sense of wonder as to why something worked the way it did. You learned the basics and then went straight into practical applications. The theory is what interested me the most.
There needs to be a math anime were the nerd is your average high school boy that discovers he is the reincarnation of Luca Pacioli and gets all the bitches with his leet accounting skills.
Sounds like bad engineering to me, any good engineer should very much understand the why of things, that’s how they can apply their knowledge to things they didn’t directly learn.
This is so very true. It doesn’t help that focusing on theory isn’t practical in an 123 sequence calculus based physics class. It simply takes to much time. I have a book that focuses on just electric field theory and its 300+ pages long. While my course book condensed the material into 150+ pages of actual reading with base theory and applications.
like I said in above post. That’s why the basics of the theory are taught. If you really want to delve into the theoretical, you need a physics degree and not a engineering degree. Of course if you are like me, you spend time learning a little bit more of the theory instead of learning how to solve “practical simulated” problems. which of course leads to you getting unsatisfactory grades, and high stress levels.
No I do agree with your paragraph, I just meant don’t throw out theory completely. You should get the basic theory behind any new concept, and get applications to put the theoretical knowledge into context. And of course the results from applications can lead to new theories being developed and from there new applications and so on.
edit: and just for the record, I’m not saying don’t teach algebra ffs. My issue is moreso with how it’s taught, with too much emphasis on theory and regurgitation(two separate issues).
And just to go into the science vs engineering thing again:
Algebra should be learned because it teaches you how to manipulate equations that will become even more important later on.
Math gets a bad rap because it isn’t explained properly, and put into historical context. We present kids with concepts that took thousands of years to compile, condense them into 12 years, and then tell kids they’re dumb or bad at math if they don’t fully grasp every concept.
My k-12 math foundation was terrible:
1st-3rd: addition/subtraction 6th-8th: pre algebra 10th: algebra II
4th,5th: division,multiplication 9th: algebra I, 11th: geometry
no calculus. no physics.
I would create a curriculum like this:
1st,2nd,3rd: addition/subtraction 6th: elementary geometry
4th,5th: division, multiplication 7th: geometry
8th: more geometry/elementary physics 9th: algebra/pre calculs 10th: calculus/physics
11th: more calculus/trigonometry 12th: teaching for SAT and ACT
If you don’t like math let professor Wildberger blow your mind: