If kids know that they are not going to be an engineer, chemist, etc. why do they still have to learn advanced math and sciences? Isn't that just wasting their time?
I would appreciate it if your answers said something other than "to get into college or to pass the ACT/SAT" Thanks! =)
The standard answer is that there is a fundamental joy gained in learning new things and that these subjects aren't a 'wasting of ones time' anymore than the job at taco-bell you're going to have for the rest of your life is.
Why limit yourself unnecessarily? Even great artists used to be intelligent, interesting people. The fact that we are now subject to the likes of Ashley Simpson is simply a consequence of your aforementioned reasoning. The tired old 'I never use algebra' argument may have worked for a house-wife in the 50s but doesn't really fly now unless you have a massive trust fund.
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Maybe because not everyone wants their kid to be a moron, it may not be useful but it won't kill them to be mildly knowledgeable of the subjects.
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Because America is dumbing down. Indeed, we're getting collectively stupider by the day…to our shame.
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Sharing might help young children become better people, but it might also make them better at math, according to preliminary findings of a study being conducted at North Carolina State University.
The study, funded by a $1.65 million grant from the National Science Foundation, aims to develop a diagnostic system for teachers to use in assessing their third- to eighth-grade students' understanding of how to solve problems that use fractions and ratios and build on the knowledge of multiplication and division, known as rational number reasoning.
The findings could signal significant changes in the way math is taught in elementary school.
The very earliest math capabilities exhibited by children is the ability to split between two people or share a group of objects, says Dr. Jere Confrey, Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor of Mathematics Education at NC State. "Kids are very sensitive to the notion of 'fair shares' and are very adept at making sure the shares come out even," she says. "That's an early characteristic that should be much more heavily leveraged in early education.
"If the students' counting and splitting skills were developed in parallel to each other, we believe they would be much more successful in all areas of rational number reasoning," she adds. "As these partitioning or splitting activities become more complex, they set up fractions, division, ratios – all of the topics that tend to be delayed until 3rd or 4th grade, but that should be done earlier because they can lead to more success in advanced math subjects down the road."
Confrey and Dr. Alan Maloney, NC State associate professor of mathematics, science and technology education and a co-investigator on the grant, also say that teachers need to examine how and in what order they teach math concepts to students. "In many schools multiplication is taught and then a couple of months later division is taught," Maloney says. "Part of what we stress in the 'splitting' world is that division and multiplication are very tied to each other and should be taught at the same time. So as the students are learning multiplication they should also be learning division.
"Teachers have this whole counting mentality that says you always teach the ones, then twos, then threes, etc. in that order," Maloney says. "But that's not necessarily the case with splitting. So one of the implications of this is that when teachers teach multiplication, they should think about it in terms of splitting, not counting. They should teach the twos as doubles, and then the fours as doubles of twos, and then eights and then 10 – and then five as half of 10. Then you can go back and pick up the threes, the sixes, the nines, and finally the sevens. This also holds true for division. This approach builds relationships within multiplication and division, rather than only memorization."
The five-year study will examine six different math subjects that involve rational numbers: partitioning; multiplication and division; ratio, proportion, and rate; fractions, decimals, and percents; similarity and scaling; and area and volume. The researchers plan to build precise measures that can show teachers which subjects are most troublesome to students.
"Students are taking these high-stakes multiple-choice tests which are very crude measures of what the students really do and don't understand about a topic," Confrey says. "Teachers need precise information about what students have learned, what they are proficient at and what they still need to learn. So that's what we hope to accomplish with this study."
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because if everyone was educated to the same level it is much harder for the "wool" to be pulled over there eyes.
Collective education is not for money, It is for the advancement of a country as a whole….
unless your happy just being mediocre
Oh I get it you just want to feel OK about being dumb using other dumb peoples thoughts as your basis for allowing that to happen to yourself… Kind of like saying "I feel better I failed because Jane failed to"
Aim high, but don't blow yourself up.
Hey I mean who needs knowledge right, we could be happy just being able to add and subtract I mean who really needs all that ADVANCED stuff anyways right. ADVANCED stuff is for losers….. I weep for the next generation
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They shouldn't!!!! all you need to learn to live in life is the mains and basic's
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I know what you mean, I used to wonder this as well. Learning these is very good for producing smart people who can figure out situations really easily.
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I thought only people who were REALLY smart took them and I thought they were optional, the advanced part anyway. They give a lot of extra credit towards other things, if not used for that reason in college. Also that can put them into a better college.
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CUZ THEY ARE STILL AN IMPORTANT HTING IIN LIFE . FOR EXAMPLE PAYING BILLS…
HOW TO COOK
AND SOME OTHER SH*T I MEAN COME ON LOOK AT UR PARENTS LOOK HOW THEY TURNED OUT
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Well, for one, it get them through with the subjects at a much faster rate – they'd have some good time to put to use – acknowledgments from other people, and more opportunities to to reach their goals.
They could do so much more than if they didn't.
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It builds characteristics, im in 11th grade and as much as i hate these classes they still build intellegence and life skills. Besides most people dont know what they want to do and there are ALOT of careers many of the most high paying jobs that revolve around math and science–Medical for science, and buisness for math.
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Math and Science are probably the two most applicable subjects when it comes to our world. Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, Biology all relate with how things actually function in the real world. Learning these subjects broadens the mind and helps bring order to our world
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Because as a nation, we hope that we are educating our youth beyond what our parents and grandparents knew. We're so far behind the rest of the world as it is, losing more math could only put us further into this "intellectual gutter" our country's gotten ourselves in by not properly funding and running our public education system.
The more each individual learns, the more competitive and stronger our country becomes.
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The standard answer is that there is a fundamental joy gained in learning new things and that these subjects aren't a 'wasting of ones time' anymore than the job at taco-bell you're going to have for the rest of your life is.
Why limit yourself unnecessarily? Even great artists used to be intelligent, interesting people. The fact that we are now subject to the likes of Ashley Simpson is simply a consequence of your aforementioned reasoning. The tired old 'I never use algebra' argument may have worked for a house-wife in the 50s but doesn't really fly now unless you have a massive trust fund.
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1. what you call advanced are really barely above basic.
2. and you need those skills to function in a modern technological society, if you plan on doing anything besides flipping burgers.
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The big reason is that when you're a kid, you don't necessarily know what you want to do, even if you know what you want to do. Plus, giving kids a choice as to what they want to study at an early age would actually limit their choices when they get out into the real world.
I'm a scientist. I absolutely love my job, but it was hard work getting here. If I had been given the choice in middle school and high school, being a teenager and mostly concerned about the present, I might not have taken the classes that I did. I would have taken the easier route. That would have completely shut me out of this career path, even though I couldn't be happier right now.
The purpose of school is to provide us with skills for the future, but also to teach us about the world around us. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is a perfectly valid goal. To limit our education to only one narrow career path would be a huge disservice to future generations.
The big reason, though, is that science literacy is extremely important in the modern world. It's because people don't understand science that Creationism is being introduced into schools (it has no scientific merit, and the controversy is from a political and religious standpoint, not scientific). It's why people get scammed out of money buying bogus "detoxifying" homeopathic treatments. It's why children are going unvaccinated and getting sick and rare diseases are coming back, since many parents falsely believe that vaccines cause autism.
Scientific illiteracy limits career options. More importantly, it leads to injury and even death when people confuse fraudulent and inaccurate medical claims with legitimate medical science. If you don't believe me, check out the link below.
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http://www.quackwatch.org/