Anyone ever feel this way about school?

[Southside]

I often feel this way about Math/Algebra, when will I need them in the real workforce and later on in life? Now, I understand you need BASIC math such as fractions,additon, multiplication, to make it in life but what stuff such as angles, surface area, is just stupid and useless. I dont believe adults in the workforce use calculus & geometery unless they're into engineering or something of that nature.

[Jess]

You may think you might not need them, but you really do. Even if you won't be going into a job that involves a lot of angle and area, you might still need it. I can't think of a reason right now but my calc teacher explained this.

[Southside]

You may think you might not need them, but you really do. Even if you won't be going into a job that involves a lot of angle and area, you might still need it. I can't think of a reason right now but my calc teacher explained this.

So if I work in a office I will be needing to know the area of a square?

[ReginaGeorge]

I used to feel like that all the time, but these do help more than we know. It's teaching us to interpret and solve hard puzzles, training our brains, making us smarter, almost. It's giving us very good problem solving skills.

Also I'm still in school, no idea what I want to do with my life, but I need moderate difficultly maths knowledge for my psychology class. I need (and have) some basic chemistry knowledge for my biology class (not maths, but relevant to this post). Everything builds on top of each other. It's all building blocks. It's all training our brain to figure out puzzles and understand problems.

As for advance maths, I think you're right, you only need it if it's prerequisite for your chosen career path.

Maths sucks, but it has a greater purpose than to torture us.

So if I work in a office I will be needing to know the area of a square?

Maybe if you need to have your carpets cleaned and you need to figure out how many square meters you need cleaned. :P I'd count that as basic maths anyway.

Please don't double post~DerBear

[PinkFloyd]

Okay, for whatever reason, your friend needs you to measure the square footage of his room. That's area.

If you are even a construction worker, you need to know angles. I mean if a road is too steep, then you cant use certain types of cement.

Yeah, I don't know when you will use calculous and what not though...

[workingatperfect]

Yeah, honestly I use geometry and even calculus a lot more than I thought I would. It really comes in handy sometimes, being able to do that stuff.

[Hyper]

Yes always felt that way. No maths teacher I ever had would give me real world examples so I just chucked it off as garbage.

Did I ever need it? No.. And still dont of course things might be different if I had a teacher spark interest in me for it but it didnt happen...

Curiously enough I had a great chemistry teacher who got me so into it I was doing college level chemical reaction calcs...

I honestly dont believe in the bs about math training brains to think, my brain could think just fine without that shit but then again I havent bothered to check for scientific research on the matter

One thing is certain though if you have the slightest thought of going to college and studying something in the ''hard'' sciences field you need to keep on track with maths, catching up later will be many times more difficult than just learning in school

[Lost in the Echo]

Yeah, I feel the exact same way about a few classes/subjects.
But you're taught those things, because life is unpredictable, and the things that you learn, may become beneficial, if you're eventually in a situation, that requires those skills, even though you didn't think you needed to learn about those things.

[Harry Smith]

Even though I hate maths the reason why you do is so you can show your employer that you were able to a certain grade in the subject and this shows that say if you got a A you are fairly intelligent. I know algebra is shit but that's just work in general.

[Thanatos]

A lot of what you learn isn't just about th subject material. Much of it is teaching you HOW to learn. Study habits, pneumonic devices, cheats, applying past skills to a new area etc. All these techniques for learning things and accomplishing a goal are learned through school subjects. So while it may not be important that you know how to calculate the volume of a cylinder, being able to make a formula and apply it is an important thing to know.

[Gigablue]

A lot of the math that you learn is completely useless for most jobs. You need basic math, but anything beyond that is only useful in math or science related jobs. Personally I love math, not because it is particularly useful in everyday life, but just because I find it interesting.

[ShatteredWings]

Much of it is teaching you HOW to learn. Study habits, pneumonic devices, cheats,
Sorry to be a grammar nazi but the word you're looking for is mnemonic.

-/-

Imma be honest.

I'm an engineering major. Sciences.

Most of the calculus I'm learning is only marginally useful and 2nd year is gonna be filling a requirement.

Very few of us are going into research sciences, theoretical math, or teaching where this comes in handy.

Your teachers HAVE to say you'll need it. They're justifying their jobs. You won't get them to say otherwise. Some believe it bc they do use it in their lives.

Do it
Get it over with
Get help if you need it
Then just move on with your education.

However. Your definition of basic is the extreme basic.
Algebra is used in most industries in some application or another. Statistics, scheduling, income, predictions ect. Few places you can escape that.

Higher math is pre-calc, trig, and beyond.

[Naue]

Algebra, understanding tax calculations and other tariff rates.

Other things for just whatever you might require in work. If you work in a business and oversee operations then you might need to work out different measurement for where new things will go.

There are endless applications

[NeuroTiger]

They are so fun...basically it is general knowledge.
At the workplace,depending which field you are in, it'll surely help a lot.
It's fun to be accurate and precise.

[Thanatos]

Sorry to be a grammar nazi but the word you're looking for is mnemonic.


English major getting his grammar corrected by an Engineer. What has the world come to?

Thank you though I was pretty sure I was wrong but didn't know the correct word.

The other issue on why they have to teach you all this 'useless' information is NCLB. With standardized testing, teachers have to teach to the test. They have to make sure to maintain their grades to maintain their job. This means they have much less 'wiggle room' in the curriculum to fit in lessons that they feel are useful in everyday life, but are less 'academic'.

[thisisben]

yeah i feel exactly the same as you!! my opinion on exams are that they only examine us on our memory not exactly our intelligence and our own qualities we have!

[Anonimi]

yeah i feel exactly the same as you!! my opinion on exams are that they only examine us on our memory not exactly our intelligence and our own qualities we have!

take a look at your test and your book, how many of the stuff is EXACTLY written in the book, your ability to use the stuff in the book on more complex things, thats what the test tests.

Also Math is needed, just general uses in life and please someone quote me the job you want

I do admit that some stuff isnt needed as much, like Art and Music (someone convince me) also, i have it alot with languages besides my own language and English, i just dont see why i NEED French when living in Holland.

also Maths is needed for other stuuff like Physics and other stuff like Geography, which is needed for general understanding of the world, and if you dont understand the world correctly, you are exactly the type of person who will be rejected for quite some jobs.

[Human]

A lot of people want to become scientists and engineers so why not teach it? It's good to appreciate what the scientists and engineers go through by learning this stuff. Algebra etc. is used in everything pretty much. In reality I'm never going to be writing reviews on books, or playing professional football or writing a case study for some history either.

[JoeHillsTSD]

I say that ALL the time. I take precalc and annoy the he'll out of my teacher with that question. But he actually gives real world applications, like picking a bank which will maximize your savings the most (you'd need logarithms to simplify any basic math you planned on using to calculate earnings). After that, I shut up, because he did what 99% of my teachers can't and won't do.

Though, I plan on becoming a professional musician so none of that crap applies (literally basic math and a knowledge of science of music is all I really need). Unless someone is going to hold a gun up to my head and force me to tell them how many parts the fifth amendment has, I don't find any of the stuff I learn in school useful.

[dontfiguremeout]

I know, I feel the same way too, but the person next to you might want to become someone who actually uses that type of math everyday. Yes, there are some things that are never used in everyday life, but some are useful to peoples jobs. School gives us a variety of knowledge preparing us for our future, and there are students in each class taking it very seriously because they already know what they want to do, and they will take all this free education to their advantage so they can become successful.

[Xandle]

Short answer - yes, it's good to know. Thing is, though, that so are history and geography and law and politics and all the other subjects. You get to choose whether or not you do those subjects, and I say, that while they would benefit us all, we can't specialise in everything. I think that sort of maths should be an optional subject that fits in to a specialist career subject.

[Cognizant]

To be honest it really annoys me when people say that I need to try harder in school and that it's important. There's some stuff I've learned that I've used in my real life, and what people are saying about the "it is important" is the really obvious stuff for the really obvious careers.
I sometimes question it because I question what I want to do with my life. Surely I don't need to know all there is to know about the Cold War if I'm just going to be driving a bus, or understand why Shakespeare wrote what he wrote to bake a cake. It's the little things like that which make me miserable in school, and won't benefit on what I plan on doing with my life.

[crepesuzette]

my precal instructor is also an engineering teacher. she says the people who get paid a lot are the ones who are good at math and she even told us to know our math. but it seems like people hate math more than ever. i also heard that back then ppl did not have to do difficult math like we do.