The Rant/Complaint Thread >:C

Off topic discussion.
TetsuwanToby
Rocket Ball Champion
Posts: 125
Joined: 8 years ago
Location: A very hot place

Postby TetsuwanToby » 8 years ago

Math is dumb
[sigpic][/sigpic]


100% pure cartoon fanatic

User avatar
fafner
Cosmic Ranger
Posts: 3522
Joined: 20 years ago
Contact:

Postby fafner » 8 years ago

Math is awesome. When you know how it works ;)
The real sign that someone has become a fanatic is that he completely loses his sense of humor about some important facet of his life. When humor goes, it means he's lost his perspective.

Wedge Antilles
Star Wars - Exile

User avatar
Rejoyce
Rocket Ball Champion
Posts: 317
Joined: 9 years ago
Location: USA

Postby Rejoyce » 8 years ago

I don't think math itself is dumb, but math homework definitely is! Learning long division (and doing hundreds of problems) was one of the most torturous events of my life. What I really hate is writing essays. It takes me twice as long to write them as anyone else. I guess I'm more of a visual person.

User avatar
Earthshine
Moderator
Posts: 2583
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Pacific Northwest of the USA

Postby Earthshine » 8 years ago

I actually love math, however I am absolutely terrible at it and is one of the main driving forces for me having to switch majors in college (I was going for an astronomy major).

What IS dumb however is the amount of stress many school systems put on math and the lack of skill in actually teaching math many teachers have. Not only can math be difficult for a lot of people to understand, but what makes it worse and even less enjoyable is when you get a teacher that literally does not know how to teach an already dry subject (if you don't like it).

As I said, I am awful at math but I enjoy it, the only times when I genuinely hated and dreaded math class was when I was put into a situation when the teacher was horrid and could not (and would not) help me learn the subject.

There's this popular mindset that a lot of math teachers have (that they themselves were told by other mathematicians) that math doesn't really NEED teaching and those that are "bad" at math simply are not trying hard enough and are stupid and there's nothing that can be done. Those that have had actual training in how to teach math know better as they have tools to help people understand the subject and understand how many different ways of learning people generally have.

The reason why I know this is because my fiance is pursuing their master's degree in adult education. I'm not sure how other nations handle their teachers but at least in the USA an educator actually DOES NOT need to know how to teach, or take teaching lessons, in order to teach. So a math teacher in high school could actually be an English major filling in for a spot... Just so long as they have a "certificate" in the particular subject they can teach it, and it's not difficult to get one. My Japanese teacher in high school was certified to teach French when he didn't even know the language AT ALL.

If you go to a private school with strict hiring guidelines it can be better though but most of the population go to public school where you can run into these sorts of scenarios.

So I guess my rant to compliment everyone's thoughts about math is; I think it's horrid that teachers don't actually need to know how to teach in order to become a teacher when teaching is an incredibly complex skill to possess and can literally ruin a life if you do not know how to teach properly.
Last edited by Earthshine on Mon Nov 30, 2015 7:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Rejoyce
Rocket Ball Champion
Posts: 317
Joined: 9 years ago
Location: USA

Postby Rejoyce » 8 years ago

Exactly! I had one teacher who I didn't understand at all, and I had to get help at home to learn the material. Then the next year, I had a tougher teacher, but he taught in a way that I understood. So I ended up getting an easy A in the "harder" class. I think the biggest reason I was confused was that my first teacher taught a million methods to do the same thing, where only one was really necessary, so I got mixed up on how to do the problems. The second teacher would quickly go through the book's method, then teach the class the shortcut way. As long as you understand the math and you get the same answer, I don't think it matters if you take shortcuts.

Elementary school kids are being taught how to add with blocks, number lines, all these different ways, and getting really confused. And they have way more homework than is necessary. In high school it's more understandable, but assigning so much homework that little kids have to carry around 50-pound backpacks is ridiculous. And that's why homeschool exists. I was homeschooled for two years and I learned more than in any "real" school, and I had twice the free time.

User avatar
Earthshine
Moderator
Posts: 2583
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Pacific Northwest of the USA

Postby Earthshine » 8 years ago

Too much emphasis on completed tasks, not enough focus on retained knowledge.

I remember these arguments back when I was in the last few grades of elementary school almost 20 years ago. From what I have seen with my fiance's extended family things have gotten worse.

Back on that topic of math though and terrible teachers...

The worst teacher I ever had, ever, was a woman named Mrs. Harrison. She taught all grades of high school math and I was the lucky student who was graced with her presence for almost two whole years.

It was obvious from how she taught and behaved that she desperately wanted to teach at the college level; as the only way she taught was through lecture. We never got to do any math in her class, they only thing we could do in her class was WATCH her do math and read the book, and do the 200+ math problems she assigned to us every night. She was a bitter and hateful woman.

If we asked questions she would literally SNAP at us to "read the book!" and she refused to clarify on certain techniques, or rules, or formulas. On the last day I had her class I came up to her before class and asked for help regarding a problem I was having difficulty understanding and she looked right at me, sneered, and told me "to just study more and read the book, because everything I will tell you is in there" and she kicked me out of the room until class started and ordered me to never ask these questions again.

... Later that day I went to my councilor about it and told him what had happened and he disclosed to me that the entire staff pretty much hated that woman but could not do anything about her because of something having to do with the school district and math and he instead pulled me from the class and put me in a different one.

There is a happy ending though! The year after I graduated I still had friends in high school and one of them had that dreadful Mrs. Harrison and was witness to her voluntary termination.

User avatar
Tetsuwan Penguin
Robot Revolutionary
Posts: 4712
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Chelmsford, Ma
Contact:

Postby Tetsuwan Penguin » 8 years ago

"Earthshine" wrote:I actually love math, however I am absolutely terrible at it and is one of the main driving forces for me having to switch majors in college (I was going for an astronomy major).

You're interested in Astronomy? ( I can sorta picture you as Ellie Arroway.) That was one of my own interests on and off (I've built a few telescopes).
[sigpic][/sigpic]Image

:tenma: I'm on Fanfiction.net as Tetsuwan Penguin. Please check out some of the other stories I've written! ;)
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4672860/Tetsuwan-Penguin

I can also be found on Deviant Art http://tetsuwanpenguin.deviantart.com/

My home page
http://scharkalvin.weebly.com/about-me.html

TetsuwanToby
Rocket Ball Champion
Posts: 125
Joined: 8 years ago
Location: A very hot place

Postby TetsuwanToby » 8 years ago

I've had to retake 3 math classes and I still don't understand an good amount of it. Just looking at a math problem stresses me out. :d oh: I've been struggling with it since 4th grade, I understand that math is supposed to help with problem solving skills and I understand that the world needs it, I just understand it. I'll try and do a,l of my homework and study yet I still bomb the tests, it's like when I see a math test my mind goes blank and I haven't idea what I'm even looking at.
[sigpic][/sigpic]





100% pure cartoon fanatic

User avatar
Earthshine
Moderator
Posts: 2583
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Pacific Northwest of the USA

Postby Earthshine » 8 years ago

I've had to retake 3 math classes and I still don't understand an good amount of it. Just looking at a math problem stresses me out. I've been struggling with it since 4th grade, I understand that math is supposed to help with problem solving skills and I understand that the world needs it, I just understand it. I'll try and do a,l of my homework and study yet I still bomb the tests, it's like when I see a math test my mind goes blank and I haven't idea what I'm even looking at.


One thing that helped me with math in college was looking up math tutorials on youtube, there are actually A LOT with different people and different ways of presenting the problem(s). Though I understand just not getting it, as I (like I said) am absolutely awful in math. The best grades I EVER got on a math exam was a middle C and I barely managed to pass all my math classes with a low C in both high school and college. Everything else was an A.

If I had not used the youtube tutorials I probably would have just failed entirely, when faced with an F or a C I'll take the C any day.

You're interested in Astronomy? ( I can sorta picture you as Ellie Arroway.) That was one of my own interests on and off (I've built a few telescopes).


I am a little embarrassed to admit that I had no idea who you were talking about and had to look it up, and then I felt even more embarrassed because I -have- read Contact but it has been years! I'll need to reread it refresh my memory (or at least watch the movie).

My own mother was not the most supportive when it came to me pursuing an academic career, because she wanted me to do other things and was convinced I was not smart enough to thrive in such environments. But as Niel DeGrasse Tyson says; you don't have to be GOOD at science, you just need a passion for it.

Well I had the passion but just couldn't do the darn math! :lol: Everything else was fine, but my advisers and instructors all agreed that it made more sense economically and chronologically to just switch majors to something I am equally passionate about rather than spend 3+ years on getting "caught up" in math just to be able to take the core classes :rolleyes:

User avatar
Shiyonasan
Administrator
Posts: 3190
Joined: 13 years ago

Postby Shiyonasan » 8 years ago

It took me three tries to pass my college algebra class in college. Three tries.

Although I didn't do terrible (my first two attempts earned me Ds), I just didn't get a lot of the material because it was way too complicated and, to be honest, I just didn't care about what was being taught. The thing that helped me to pass the third time around was taking the class online. I think it helped me to not have so much visual distraction around me as opposed to when taking that class in a physical classroom. I tend to focus better on classwork and homework whenever I'm alone, so having that online option for the class helped me a bunch. In the end, I still barely passed with a C (my college requires at least a 73% grade to pass a class), but hey, a passing grade is a passing grade.

The only other math class I had to take after that one was another online math class where you had to write about important people in math history and also how to solve certain more basic math problems. It was nice because we usually had to focus on one math problem at a time, and we more often went over those historical people in math history.

Anyway, I totally understand your guys' frustration with math classes, whether in the past or present. As Earthshine alluded to, I think you have to have a passion for something in order to learn it better. If you don't care about something, you don't retain the information for that something as well. Obviously though, you have to take certain math classes in school whether you want to or not and just have to deal with it until it's not required for you to take anymore.

So to you TetsuwanToby, I offer good luck. I know how frustrating math classes can be, but you can get through it. :)


Return to “General Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 39 guests