4 ms·

> That's the value school has When you say value, are you talking about the economic type? Because Susie here is probably better off focusing on her music care

by smokeyj 10y ago

> That's the value school has When you say value, are you talking about the economic type? Because Susie here is probably better off focusing on her music career than learning long division. I don't see how you can analyze value without quantifying cost and benefit. Even if a better method existed you'd have no way of knowing - especially without more experiments and bigger data sets.

sardonicbryan 10y ago
I would agree if she didn't want to learn calculus or linear algebra, but I think long division is a pretty fundamental skill in today's world. How much is my monthly car payment going to be if I take this loan? What is my share of the rent in this house? What are the consequences of running up a credit card balance?
- gwilkes 10y ago
  No, sorry it's not a fundamental skill in the least. It's a method for dividing on paper. In 37 years I've never used it outside of school as I have calculator in my pocket as does everyone else (smartphone obviously). Furthermore, "In the United States, long division has been especially targeted for de-emphasis, or even elimination from the school curriculum..." according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_division https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_division
  - tmptmp 10y ago
    You are right, long division is not very fundamental but the concept of division is. I have addressed this issue in a comment in a thread here [1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12034345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12034345
  - xanderstrike 10y ago
    To clarify even though it's probably too late. She couldn't do division or multiplication of any size in her head, and was fuzzy on what occasions to use them in. For example, if you said "pay me back over 3 years for this $30,000 car", she might first multiply it by 3, get a very large number and then try dividing it and decide that's the right answer. People are getting hung up on the fact that I said "long division" but it was basically anything beyond addition and subtraction.

by smokeyj 10y ago

sardonicbryan 10y ago

I would agree if she didn't want to learn calculus or linear algebra, but I think long division is a pretty fundamental skill in today's world. How much is my monthly car payment going to be if I take this loan? What is my share of the rent in this house? What are the consequences of running up a credit card balance?

gwilkes 10y ago
No, sorry it's not a fundamental skill in the least. It's a method for dividing on paper. In 37 years I've never used it outside of school as I have calculator in my pocket as does everyone else (smartphone obviously). Furthermore, "In the United States, long division has been especially targeted for de-emphasis, or even elimination from the school curriculum..." according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_division https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_division
- tmptmp 10y ago
  You are right, long division is not very fundamental but the concept of division is. I have addressed this issue in a comment in a thread here [1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12034345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12034345
- xanderstrike 10y ago
  To clarify even though it's probably too late. She couldn't do division or multiplication of any size in her head, and was fuzzy on what occasions to use them in. For example, if you said "pay me back over 3 years for this $30,000 car", she might first multiply it by 3, get a very large number and then try dividing it and decide that's the right answer. People are getting hung up on the fact that I said "long division" but it was basically anything beyond addition and subtraction.