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SportsDino · 04-28-2010, 04:09 PM

Yuck, we don't need even stupider sheep in the populace. Excel is a skill that should be taught in a computers class, it isn't math.

Algebra is just the start of people learning how to actually think about math rather than punching buttons on a calculator. Half of the math taught in high school is necessary for basic understanding of chemistry, PHYSICS, and statistics. You might as well cut the curriculum down to reading/writing/history at that point.

Hell, this is the society that thinks everyone needs to go to college, this is impossible with 8th grade level math as the standard leaving high school. We already have a society of the most expensively trained secretaries and coffee shop workers, and we are constantly being passed by on engineering development by other countries.

There is no way cutting back on math is somehow going to improve education. Its just embracing the dumbening of America.

Even more than the mechanical skills, what this really gets to is learning how to think mathematically instead of arithmetically. The process of proofs is why we teach geometry, not because anyone really cares about the circumference of a circle most days. The problem with a lot of people is they can't connect the dots in their thinking, they think all of discourse and intelligence is quoting back the latest groupthink blasted out over the television. We need less frickin zombies and more people who are able to systematically approach problems and solve them.

You want 'deeper algebra'... guess what, that is what most of those classes after algebra 1 are doing. You take the skills learned in algebra, and apply them to real world math problems like geometry and trigonometry to get people some practice, otherwise they don't have the basic intelligence to understand whether the MatLab equation solver they used actually got the right result or not because they typoed the entry.

This is the same as engineers downplaying the liberal arts, they think as long as they can do math that they'll never have need to communicate with someone else, or understand how history and social science help to understand the context and the process of what people are doing all around them. It is just an extension of the 'people are mindless cogs in a giant machine' type of thinking, they put it under the friendly name of 'specialization' but its really just making kids braindead and minimally functional to live the dumb consumer lifestyle.

04-28-2010, 04:09 PM	#5
SportsDino College Prospect Join Date: Oct 2001	Yuck, we don't need even stupider sheep in the populace. Excel is a skill that should be taught in a computers class, it isn't math. Algebra is just the start of people learning how to actually think about math rather than punching buttons on a calculator. Half of the math taught in high school is necessary for basic understanding of chemistry, PHYSICS, and statistics. You might as well cut the curriculum down to reading/writing/history at that point. Hell, this is the society that thinks everyone needs to go to college, this is impossible with 8th grade level math as the standard leaving high school. We already have a society of the most expensively trained secretaries and coffee shop workers, and we are constantly being passed by on engineering development by other countries. There is no way cutting back on math is somehow going to improve education. Its just embracing the dumbening of America. Even more than the mechanical skills, what this really gets to is learning how to think mathematically instead of arithmetically. The process of proofs is why we teach geometry, not because anyone really cares about the circumference of a circle most days. The problem with a lot of people is they can't connect the dots in their thinking, they think all of discourse and intelligence is quoting back the latest groupthink blasted out over the television. We need less frickin zombies and more people who are able to systematically approach problems and solve them. You want 'deeper algebra'... guess what, that is what most of those classes after algebra 1 are doing. You take the skills learned in algebra, and apply them to real world math problems like geometry and trigonometry to get people some practice, otherwise they don't have the basic intelligence to understand whether the MatLab equation solver they used actually got the right result or not because they typoed the entry. This is the same as engineers downplaying the liberal arts, they think as long as they can do math that they'll never have need to communicate with someone else, or understand how history and social science help to understand the context and the process of what people are doing all around them. It is just an extension of the 'people are mindless cogs in a giant machine' type of thinking, they put it under the friendly name of 'specialization' but its really just making kids braindead and minimally functional to live the dumb consumer lifestyle.