High School Math--what good is it?

[QuarkChild]

There's a thread on the Straight Dope message board that touches on this issue, but rather than hijacking that thread (not to be mention registering as a user) I decided to bring up the issue here.

Someone was posing the "What good is it?" question about high school-level mathematics, and my first thought was:

"What good is it? Give me a break! I use the quadratic formula at least once a week, completing the square at least once a month, definitions of trig functions every day, and double angle/half-angle trig formulas about once a fortnight. I'm darn glad I learned those things in high school!"

Then I realized, who am I kidding. I didn't learn how to complete the square in high school--or if I did, I'd forgotten how by the time I actually had to use it, and I had to figure it out on my own. The same goes for all of those trig formulas--I memorized them long enough to pass my precalc tests, then promptly forgot them. Now, if I need a double-angle formula, I derive it, like I did today when I needed another way to write the square of sine(theta). I can think of many other examples but won't bore you with them.

So anyway, I wish that instead of being expected to memorize all that junk in high school, we had been taught to do derivations. Just about any of the common trig formulas can be derived from Euler's formula. I wish I'd learned that a long time ago, instead of having to figure it out myself. Sure, if I'd been a little quicker on the uptake, I'd have noticed that trick long before college. Well, I didn't notice. So I wasted lots of time in HS memorizing half-angle formulas and the like.

Does anyone else have opinions on the how-math-should-be-taught-differently issue?

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

The only time in the past 25 years that I have used the Quadratic Equation was 2 summers ago while laying out excavation units for an archaeological expedition.

 

[LucyR]

So anyway, I wish that instead of being expected to memorize all that junk in high school, we had been taught to do derivations.

No offence, but the standard of education at your school was clearly nothing to write home about. We were expected to derive formulae under exam conditions. Your example of a double angle expression was one of them.

In any case I agree completely that students should always be taught how to derive formulae before using them.

 

[American]

They are giving you the potential to make something big of yourself in technical fields and theoretical sciences. Like most people, you'll probably forget it all and never see it again when you start work. You won't need more than arithmetic and times tables to function at most jobs, and not more than algebra for finance and even many technical jobs.

Then there's the world of high-end design and engineering, computing, systems modelling... Do you really want to cut yourself off from that road at such a young age? At what point do you want to close those doors by giving up on math?

Take a hard look at who you are and how you see yourself. You'll start to know your place in the world and whether you need math classes or not.

 

[QuarkChild]

Re: Re: High School Math--what good is it?

Originally posted by American
Take a hard look at who you are and how you see yourself. You'll start to know your place in the world and whether you need math classes or not.

Is this addressed to me? If so, you'd better read my whole post.

LucyR--
I admit my precalculus course was a bit lacking. I took precalc over the summer (at a different school) so that I could take calculus as a junior, so I had to cover a year's worth of material in about 10 weeks. In any case, I would be very pleased to find out that this deficiency was unique to my experience.

I can't remember whether my other math courses were as memorization-based as that class. I seem to remember that my calculus class was pretty useful, but that was AP Calculus so it might have had higher standards.

 

[LucyR]

The most taxing course I've done was in group theory. Found myself having to think really deeply (by my standards anyway!)

 

[QuarkChild]

Group theory isn't child's play....I sat in on the graduate group theory course as a senior in college, and they lost me somewhere between the "roots and weights" concepts and Young tableaux. I have to take group theory formally next year. Hopefully I'll pick up a little more of it this time.

 

[Kilted_Canuck]

Next year I'll be taking the Calculus course offered by our school system.

Rather than breaking math into different sections (trig, geo, etc.), our school system has four courses(all optional) for advanced math, titled A, B,C, and calculus. I forget most of the math in A, and B, which I have done (passed with mid 60's because I hated the teacher and she hated me), but the next 2 I should do good at. Most of the stuff is useless, but the point is not teaching the calculations, it is teaching the more abstract parts of math.

Problem solving, and being able to feel comfortable with numbers and abstract though is probably the point of the curriculum.(one of my teachers is on the curriculum committe, so he could answer all the 'when are we ever going to do this' questions)

 

[Jon_in_london]

Problem solving, and being able to feel comfortable with numbers and abstract though is probably the point of the curriculum.(one of my teachers is on the curriculum committe, so he could answer all the 'when are we ever going to do this' questions)

Calaculus is cool. No really!

The other thing about maths is that it trains your brain. It teaches you abstract thought and problem solving and makes you more clever.