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So the solution to poor instruction is to drop it? Math is a useful skill for everyone, including calculus. Not everybody goes to university, so we should teac

So the solution to poor instruction is to drop it? Math is a useful skill for everyone, including calculus. Not everybody goes to university, so we should teach it in HS.

intergalplan 6y ago
Approaching 40. Haven't ever needed calculus (or Trig) for anything. Sometimes I make an effort to pick math back up just because I feel like I ought to, but it'd be so purely a hobby with no practical use that I have a hard time keeping at it. Some of it's neat but it's not really any more valuable to my life than doing even-less-useful-but-more-fun recreational math puzzles. Most people's lives and jobs involve even less math than mine does. More stats probably would have been helpful. Anything less-obviously-useful needs a hell of a lot more emphasis on what it's used for and how to apply it than I ever received, IMO, unless you're a pure-math major, and certainly in k-12 since almost none of the kids are going to be math majors.
- fastball 6y ago
  I'm 25 and I use calc and trig all the time. I used trig yesterday to figure out what angle I needed to cut a board (I'm building a barn). I used calculus a few weeks ago to help solve an issue I was having with a water tank.
  - intergalplan 6y ago
    Hahaha, see, I'm so terrible at both measuring and cutting that I'd never expect anything I'm building to come out remotely right if I needed to start doing much with angles that aren't 90, 45, or 30, with hard pre-sets on whatever tools I'm using because if I'm setting the angle myself it's gonna be off by enough to ruin it, no matter how precise I think I've got it. No way I'm not gonna end up working around or re-doing it with something simpler if I start bringing trigonometry to the party. I'm lucky when my straight cuts that I measured and marked 3 times "just to be sure" don't somehow end up wrong. [EDIT] actually, I take that back, I do sometimes work with odd angles but never do it without a physical template built and fitted, because attempts to do it "cute" or figure it out purely on paper have a history of being hilariously wrong (when I do them) even when the math is 100% correct (according to the evidently-not-precise-enough measurements).
- AnimalMuppet 6y ago
  I have a degree in math and physics. I only used one tiny bit of calculus once in my career - say, maybe a month total... ... and then I got a new job when I was 43, in medical x-ray machines. Suddenly everything was 3D coordinate transforms, Fourier transforms, and integrals, plus radiation physics. You don't need or use this stuff... until you do.

So the solution to poor instruction is to drop it? Math is a useful skill for everyone, including calculus. Not everybody goes to university, so we should teach it in HS.

intergalplan 6y ago

Approaching 40. Haven't ever needed calculus (or Trig) for anything. Sometimes I make an effort to pick math back up just because I feel like I ought to, but it'd be so purely a hobby with no practical use that I have a hard time keeping at it. Some of it's neat but it's not really any more valuable to my life than doing even-less-useful-but-more-fun recreational math puzzles. Most people's lives and jobs involve even less math than mine does. More stats probably would have been helpful. Anything less-obviously-useful needs a hell of a lot more emphasis on what it's used for and how to apply it than I ever received, IMO, unless you're a pure-math major, and certainly in k-12 since almost none of the kids are going to be math majors.

fastball 6y ago
I'm 25 and I use calc and trig all the time. I used trig yesterday to figure out what angle I needed to cut a board (I'm building a barn). I used calculus a few weeks ago to help solve an issue I was having with a water tank.
- intergalplan 6y ago
  Hahaha, see, I'm so terrible at both measuring and cutting that I'd never expect anything I'm building to come out remotely right if I needed to start doing much with angles that aren't 90, 45, or 30, with hard pre-sets on whatever tools I'm using because if I'm setting the angle myself it's gonna be off by enough to ruin it, no matter how precise I think I've got it. No way I'm not gonna end up working around or re-doing it with something simpler if I start bringing trigonometry to the party. I'm lucky when my straight cuts that I measured and marked 3 times "just to be sure" don't somehow end up wrong. [EDIT] actually, I take that back, I do sometimes work with odd angles but never do it without a physical template built and fitted, because attempts to do it "cute" or figure it out purely on paper have a history of being hilariously wrong (when I do them) even when the math is 100% correct (according to the evidently-not-precise-enough measurements).
AnimalMuppet 6y ago
I have a degree in math and physics. I only used one tiny bit of calculus once in my career - say, maybe a month total... ... and then I got a new job when I was 43, in medical x-ray machines. Suddenly everything was 3D coordinate transforms, Fourier transforms, and integrals, plus radiation physics. You don't need or use this stuff... until you do.