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Math is frequently taught by skipping the underlying definitions...in other classes. Those other classes take the fun and useful results and leave the actual ma
by leereeves 4y ago
Math is frequently taught by skipping the underlying definitions...in other classes. Those other classes take the fun and useful results and leave the actual math class with the difficult, tedious process of learning mathematics rigorously.
It's like learning programming by first learning how transistors work, then microprocessors, then assembly language, then compilers, etc. While across the hall, the engineering department is learning Python directly.
But I think it is necessary, because rigor is why mathematics is useful. We can (and do) teach statistics without calculus, but the result is often bad stats and bad science.
- data_maan 4y agoThis! Going the non-rigorous, fun way you get results faster, but you're foundation will be weak. That Python coding engineer - he will be limited in what he will be able to do. Fast, production level code more often is written in C, C++, Go etc. than Python. Why do people in the west always think everything needs to be "fun" from the beginning? It can become fun at some point, but it doesn't need to be from the start.
- jbjbjbjb 4y agoI don’t get why maths teachers tend not to take the time to explain the definition properly. Even the symbols aren’t explained, they just assume students know the symbols.
- hgsgm 4y ago
- imtringued 4y agoThey also assume the students know that there is no logic behind the choice of symbols but rather that they are often arbitrary non binding conventions that can be changed at any point in time.
- zajio1am 4y agoIMHO skipping underlying definitions makes it much harder to understand math, because you have to grok new concepts as a whole, while the definitions build these concepts from elements you already know.