USA Math Team Finally Regains Throne - Unfortunately With No Girls
[ Quote followed by *MY RANT* WHICH YOU MIGHT ENJOY READING:]
"I think if we are able to communicate to the greater American public that mathematics is not just about memorizing a bunch of formulas, but in fact is as creative as the humanities and arts, quite possibly you might be able to upend the culture difference."
To which I respond, as a credentialed math teacher who "burned out" before even starting full-time teaching... As long as teachers are forced to cram a bunch of useless crap down disinterested students' throats just to cover artificial demands of standardized tests... that ain't gonna happen.
But how do we change this? The unfortunate thing is, there's an enormous blindness around that entire subject. Kids always have the feeling that high school math is useless -- and IMO they're completely right.
While *Middle School* math (fractions, percentages, +/-numbers, basic algebraic reasoning) has everyday usefulness -- Over 99% of high school students will never use High School Math again in their life. (Hell, I know *engineers* who've never once used high school math in their jobs!)
So why do they keep teaching it? Because those same 99% who have no understanding of math therefore feel intimidated and unqualified to speak out about it! So they continue to buy into the same nonsense, assuming there must be some good reason for it.
Nope. There's really not a good reason. It's just another example of "trickle down" theory, in the form of curriculum designed by a privileged math elite in the 19th century who found it easy and fun and thought everyone who isn't a math nerd should be.... and nobody has questioned the entirety of that whole bullshit curriculum since.
Nope. There's really not a good reason. It's just another example of "trickle down" theory, in the form of curriculum designed by a privileged math elite in the 19th century who found it easy and fun and thought everyone who isn't a math nerd should be.... and nobody has questioned the entirety of that whole bullshit curriculum since.
* "HIGH SCHOOL MATH" SHOULD BE AN ELECTIVE *
High School Math should be replaced with an extremely It should be replaced with an extremely useful 4-year course on Critical & Quantitative Reasoning, which would include disciplines like Logical Reasoning, Statistical Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Programming Logic.
But we have an Immediate Problem: Who's going to teach it? Most "math teachers" only know how to pass on the same useless crap they learned in high school and (presumably) mastered in college. Ironically, the best people to teach that subject might actually come from the"Humanities" -- the subjects that when done well actually encourage the development of wisdom and critical thinking, often much more than even science classes. AP English teachers would rock at it... at least if most of them weren't permanently traumatized by the slightest semblance of "math".
So that's pretty much where we're at, as I see it. Just blindly following a bunch of national and local school board politicians who in school never found any relevance in a 19th century curriculum... ironically trying to scare us that we're "falling behind in math". (No kidding, right? We're a century behind by design!) And all while we continue to buy into the modern opportunity myth that you need college to get a job and you need four years of math to get into college... "Therefore."
Fortunately, though, the second illusion seems to be falling apart as millennials unmask the college scam. And the first, though we're quite a ways from addressing that enormous problem, can be *introduced*, simply by raising the question and not accepting the usual propaganda as real answers. No one is really to blame. It's not like a huge conspiracy of world powers trying to keep us down. It's just a weird systemic thing where the only people who think to question the system don't realize that they're actually right to speak up about it. If you didn't find high school math the slightest bit relevant to your life -then you, along with 99% of the population -- are right to complain about it. :) And maybe wonder...
If everyone had taken a “Critical & Quantitative Reasoning” class instead… Would we have noticed this sooner?
