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Hot take, mathematics should be split into arithmetic and mathematics. Most people just want arithmetic, what's the tip on this bar tab? What do I put in the c

Hot take, mathematics should be split into arithmetic and mathematics. Most people just want arithmetic, what's the tip on this bar tab? What do I put in the capital gains box on this tax return? Universities, businessess and most who will go into other STEM paths want mathematics. And mathematics is incredibly abstract and the reward are plenty of it's your thing. I haven't read any recent research on this (cause I'm not much interested) but there is potent correlation between IQ and interest/ability in mathematics (and physics). This is telling (or concerning depending on your viewpoint) as IQ is a normal distribution meaning actually statistically some people are unlikely to grasp or be interested in the maths we care about. TL;DR You wont understand why quadratics are so important until you encounter integral calculus. You wont appreciate complex numbers until you encounter complex analysis (well maybe some physics). The same way you wouldn't appreciate cement until you encountered a brick wall.

plonk 4y ago
I find that people with some advanced math education are just better at reasoning and more successful in general. Teaching some people arithmetic and others the "rest" would be a huge shame. It's doubly damaging in countries where the government works by majority voting. I saw that when comparing family members (one of whom dropped out after middle school) watching the news. They just don't have a good enough understanding of basic math and logic to have a useful opinion, so they take the mental junk food some politician throws at them. All of that to say, teaching as advanced math as possible to as many people as possible is in everybody's interest. It's not about enjoyment or being able to write proofs, it's about developing children's and teens' reasoning skills.
- psychphysic 4y ago
  I whole heartedly agree. But people have finite teen years, and finite attention. Many simply aren't interested and seem to resent abstract mathematical education. And simultaneously desire better accountancy skills. This would be a way to achieve that
  - plonk 4y ago
    What I'd have loved to be taught is basic financial skills, as you said. But you need to cram that into an already crammed schedule that overworks children for diminishing returns (I found school miserable) and the math taught in my (first-world, very rich) country is already too basic IMO. Maybe as a one-hour-a-week high school course. The "economics" taught there were so basic and incomplete as to be useless.

plonk 4y ago

I find that people with some advanced math education are just better at reasoning and more successful in general. Teaching some people arithmetic and others the "rest" would be a huge shame. It's doubly damaging in countries where the government works by majority voting. I saw that when comparing family members (one of whom dropped out after middle school) watching the news. They just don't have a good enough understanding of basic math and logic to have a useful opinion, so they take the mental junk food some politician throws at them. All of that to say, teaching as advanced math as possible to as many people as possible is in everybody's interest. It's not about enjoyment or being able to write proofs, it's about developing children's and teens' reasoning skills.

psychphysic 4y ago
I whole heartedly agree. But people have finite teen years, and finite attention. Many simply aren't interested and seem to resent abstract mathematical education. And simultaneously desire better accountancy skills. This would be a way to achieve that
- plonk 4y ago
  What I'd have loved to be taught is basic financial skills, as you said. But you need to cram that into an already crammed schedule that overworks children for diminishing returns (I found school miserable) and the math taught in my (first-world, very rich) country is already too basic IMO. Maybe as a one-hour-a-week high school course. The "economics" taught there were so basic and incomplete as to be useless.