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I found math class stultifying and boring until the focus switched from learning algorithms for computation to doing proofs of relations and concepts. Also I be

by krapht 10y ago

I found math class stultifying and boring until the focus switched from learning algorithms for computation to doing proofs of relations and concepts. Also I began to discover the actual applications for advanced math, instead of learning it for its own sake. I wish in hindsight that instead of taking endless years of calculus there was a high school version of real analysis, and exercise problems rooted in real-life to motivate the learning.

thearn4 10y ago
I teach calculus on the side sometimes for beer money (ie. adjunct), and has made me stronger in my long-running feeling that we teach way too much calculus in the STEM fields. Most people "in the trenches" writing tools that would make use of the fundamentals in their field (either in the physical sciences or engineering disciplines) tend to agree that linear algebra has disproportionately little representation compared to calculus. To be fair, that is somewhat of a downstream problem from mathematics departments, and speaks more about the possibility of stagnation in the undergraduate science and engineering curricula. fair caveat though: my PhD is in numerical linear algebra...
politician 10y ago
Reading this comment as a programmer, I had the horrific thought that we treat our children the same way we treat our computers: programming them with algorithms, debugging them with failing grades, executing them for test scores. It's barbaric. Leave the program execution to the computers, give the children critical thinking skills.
Merad 10y ago
I didn't really get into math until calculus, personally. There was this moment of realization that calc starts to describe the real world, opening up the ability to do all kinds of useful and interesting things. I ate up calc 1-3 and differential equations, even though I have no real use for them today. OTOH, my brain apparently just is not equipped to deal with proofs, either in mathematics or comp sci theory. They were always an enormous struggle for me.
- chrismealy 10y ago
  Me too. I loved the story problems in calculus. I felt like I had learned a secret magic spell. Unfortunately I never get to use it in real life.

by krapht 10y ago

thearn4 10y ago

I teach calculus on the side sometimes for beer money (ie. adjunct), and has made me stronger in my long-running feeling that we teach way too much calculus in the STEM fields. Most people "in the trenches" writing tools that would make use of the fundamentals in their field (either in the physical sciences or engineering disciplines) tend to agree that linear algebra has disproportionately little representation compared to calculus. To be fair, that is somewhat of a downstream problem from mathematics departments, and speaks more about the possibility of stagnation in the undergraduate science and engineering curricula. fair caveat though: my PhD is in numerical linear algebra...

politician 10y ago

Reading this comment as a programmer, I had the horrific thought that we treat our children the same way we treat our computers: programming them with algorithms, debugging them with failing grades, executing them for test scores. It's barbaric. Leave the program execution to the computers, give the children critical thinking skills.

Merad 10y ago

I didn't really get into math until calculus, personally. There was this moment of realization that calc starts to describe the real world, opening up the ability to do all kinds of useful and interesting things. I ate up calc 1-3 and differential equations, even though I have no real use for them today. OTOH, my brain apparently just is not equipped to deal with proofs, either in mathematics or comp sci theory. They were always an enormous struggle for me.

chrismealy 10y ago
Me too. I loved the story problems in calculus. I felt like I had learned a secret magic spell. Unfortunately I never get to use it in real life.