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That reminds me of when teachers would say: what if you're without a calculator? And yet we all have smartphones in our pockets today with calculators.
by RA_Fisher 9mo ago
That reminds me of when teachers would say: what if you're without a calculator? And yet we all have smartphones in our pockets today with calculators.
- davidmurdoch 9mo agoHaving a deep intuition about what the calculator is doing is the skill we were actually being taught. Teachers don't know always understand why things are being taught.
- 1718627440 9mo ago> Teachers don't know always understand why things are being taught. Yes, but I don't think that is the actual bottleneck, even when they do, most children probably don't care about abstract goals, but rather about immediate skills in their everyday life, or just the statement, that they will need it.
- davidmurdoch 9mo agoI guess I'm just trying to suggest that teachers sometimes might think they know why things are being taught, and make claims like "you wont always have a calculator" as the reason for learning mathematics. One conclusion might be that it'd be better for some students if teachers understood the why, as they might change their approach on some subjects. An example: knowing that certain equations and patterns EXIST, and which kinds of problems they apply to, is generally much more important that knowing the actual equations by heart themselves.
- fatherwavelet 9mo ago"You can't begin to paint until you have learned to stretch canvas by hand like the old masters. What if one day you couldn't just go to the art supply store and buy a pre-stretched canvas? It is all besides the point anyway. You are going to learn to stretch canvas by hand first because that is what my teacher made me do!"
- RA_Fisher 8mo agoI’m a fan of using a variety of methods to teach, no issue with that. My issue is with teachers that don’t admit how the world is changing. Dinosaurs.
- palmotea 9mo ago> That reminds me of when teachers would say: what if you're without a calculator? And yet we all have smartphones in our pockets today with calculators. Your teachers had the right goal, but a bad argument. Learning arithmetic isn't just about being able to do a calculation. It's about getting your brain comfortable with math. If you always have to pull out a goddamn calculator, you'll be extremely limited. Trust me, elementary-age me was dumb to not listen to those teachers and to become so calculator-dependent.
- RA_Fisher 9mo agoI think learning arithmetic is a good idea, but it’s only a part of computation. I don’t think we should get too hung up on a particular method of computation (bc there’s so many ways).
- 1718627440 9mo agoAnd yet calculating your shopping expenses to prevent getting screwed by buggy vending machines, or quickly making rough estimations at your work, is as useful as ever. Tell me how you can learn calculus and group theory, when you skipped primary school math.
- fatherwavelet 9mo agoCertain subjects we treat as if one has to learn woodworking before taking violin lessons. We just really underestimate sentimentality in our society because it doesn't fit our self conception.
- RA_Fisher 9mo agoVery fair. I think even more we underestimate our own sentimentalities. eg- the teacher that believes adding or multiplication has to be done a particular way (like the standard algorithm vs. partial products).