“Another day has passed and I still haven’t used the notion that the height of something on a slope is equal to the horizontal distance from the start of the slope times the steepness of the slope plus the initial height of the slope off the ground.” I swear people treat math as something you explicitly need to sit down and write the equations for to get any use out of instead of just, like, them being useful to make you a more logical, well-rounded thinker. It’s like thinking the sole point of reading Of Mice and Men in 8th grade is so that you can randomly recite quotes from it years later.
I don’t remember very much of “Of Mice and Men”, and I don’t remember very much of the math I learned in school either. I’m not mad about having learned/read that stuff, but I also don’t feel bad about not remembering/using it since.
I guess that’s the idea. I’m just saying it’s normal for most people not to need lifelong advanced math skills. It’s also normal for people to not like or be good at math. I really found geometry to be intuitive, but algebra was opaque.
“Another day has passed and I still haven’t used the notion that the height of something on a slope is equal to the horizontal distance from the start of the slope times the steepness of the slope plus the initial height of the slope off the ground.” I swear people treat math as something you explicitly need to sit down and write the equations for to get any use out of instead of just, like, them being useful to make you a more logical, well-rounded thinker. It’s like thinking the sole point of reading Of Mice and Men in 8th grade is so that you can randomly recite quotes from it years later.
that’s how it’s taught. learning to reason about problems is secondary to “just do the numbers”. you’re not graded on understanding.
I don’t remember very much of “Of Mice and Men”, and I don’t remember very much of the math I learned in school either. I’m not mad about having learned/read that stuff, but I also don’t feel bad about not remembering/using it since.
Learning it in your formative years likely improved your analytical thinking skills in general
I guess that’s the idea. I’m just saying it’s normal for most people not to need lifelong advanced math skills. It’s also normal for people to not like or be good at math. I really found geometry to be intuitive, but algebra was opaque.