Math question Options

[James]

See poll. Feel free to discuss if you want, but I'm curious to what responses I'll get.

The basis of this question comes from a book I'm reading, "How Mathematics Happened," and in particular, this paragraph:

In ancient Greece, mathematics was a respected subject. Now it is the most detested of school subjects. What did the Greeks do in mathematical education that we are not doing today?

...

Greek schooling was limited to reading, writing, rhetoric, music, and athletics. After completion of schooling, a man could add to his education by listening to lectures given by wandering scholars called Sophists. If he specifically wanted to learn mathematics, he listened to a Sophist who lectured about mathematics. Mathematics was an elective for the mature. Arithmetic ability was not necessary for the educated Greek; he had slaves to do his menial mental as well as physical labor. Today's more human equivalent of the slave is the electronic calculator.

I suppose the same idea would apply to science.

This post has been edited by Spectatrix: Jun 12 2007, 12:58 PM

[kcroxyoursox]

There should be an option "If it were an elective, I wouldn't know how I feel, because I would have elected not to take it."

I like math when it's something I can do with a four function calculator. The same stuff that if I wasn't so damn lazy I could figure out myself. The math that means something (making change at a part-time job, figuring out how much food to order for an office meeting, etc.)

Honestly, there are so many careers out there that don't involve math. I'm glad I caught onto all the math I had to take if only to help my average. I'm also glad I have a solid base for if I did decide to chage careers and needed more schooling.

I don't think programming should replace math. The year of JAVA I took was the biggest waste of my life and my time. The only thing I even remotely remember is when we did binary math, which didn't even involve using the computers. If I saw my teacher today and he asked me, I would tell him to his face that I cheated almost the entire semester when it came to writing programs. And that's not like me or my work ethic or my attitude towards learning (evidenced by many examples, inquire within for specifics) but it is and was an utter waste of my time. [Sorry to you nerds who all went on to use programming for something applicable to your lives.]

[James]

There should be an option "If it were an elective, I wouldn't know how I feel, because I would have elected not to take it."

I like math when it's something I can do with a four function calculator. The same stuff that if I wasn't so damn lazy I could figure out myself. The math that means something (making change at a part-time job, figuring out how much food to order for an office meeting, etc.)

Honestly, there are so many careers out there that don't involve math. I'm glad I caught onto all the math I had to take if only to help my average. I'm also glad I have a solid base for if I did decide to chage careers and needed more schooling.

I don't think programming should replace math. The year of JAVA I took was the biggest waste of my life and my time. The only thing I even remotely remember is when we did binary math, which didn't even involve using the computers. If I saw my teacher today and he asked me, I would tell him to his face that I cheated almost the entire semester when it came to writing programs. And that's not like me or my work ethic or my attitude towards learning (evidenced by many examples, inquire within for specifics) but it is and was an utter waste of my time. [Sorry to you nerds who all went on to use programming for something applicable to your lives.]

Yeah, this is a very good example of what happens when people are forced to take classes they dislike. Everything is so high stakes in education, so they usually resort to cheating, take nothing or almost nothing from the course, and inhibit their peers.

Also, I think "If it were an elective, I wouldn't know how I feel, because I would have elected not to take it." and the one about hating it before and after are the same. I guess the poll is unfair though. How can we know how we'd feel about something like that after all these years of being forced to do it? Art was an elective and I enjoyed it, but music was an elective and I never even tried it. Neither was extrinsically forced or encouraged.