Why do people think it ok to not know math?

[opaltiger]

I learnt that in 4th grade

no, in 4th grade it's "length times width equals area". >:(

also uh apparently I will be learning differentiation at the end of this year (junior) and next year is mostly calculus with some statistics and probability thrown in. I've no idea how exciting, but calculus is taught in high school here.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Oh yeaaah! I've heard that before. Never from my teacher, thank god. Probably on TV or something.

 

[Eevee]

no, in 4th grade it's "length times width equals area". >:(

Real men integrate to find the area of a rectangle.

and next year is mostly calculus with some statistics and probability thrown in.

Statistics is not math. >:||||||||||

 

[Altmer]

Differential equations are fucking awesome. DiffEq was the best math class I'd taken in years.

not particularly my favourite

and Eevee I doubt you will remember how to use your maths if you don't use it often, deriving is nice and all that but it takes time and comes more naturally if you practice it often I've found

 

[goldenquagsire]

Except that they will teach it alongside Latin and Greek!

I go to one of the oldest private schools in Britain, and they stopped making Latin, along with ridiculously over-the-top uniforms compulsory years back. There's another two private schools near here, and apparently both are in the same situation. And don't even mention state schools or I will rofl my guts out. :D

Sounds more like you want to know it, but you want to avoid learning it as much as humanly possible.

You cannot well learn something you actively don't want to learn or believe you can't learn.

Good advice, I suppose. :/

 

[Eevee]

and Eevee I doubt you will remember how to use your maths if you don't use it often, deriving is nice and all that but it takes time and comes more naturally if you practice it often I've found

Forgetting something due to disuse is hardly the same as needing to memorize it by mindnumbing repetition in the first place.

 

[Altmer]

yeah well eevee you have to know I am a person that leans very strong on memory for cognitive ability; i can memorise anything I want to memorise

of course I also possess insight but I tend be very rigid and structural and use memory to categorise everything

i guess you probably work on insight more

 

[Ruby]

I go to one of the oldest private schools in Britain, and they stopped making Latin, along with ridiculously over-the-top uniforms compulsory years back. There's another two private schools near here, and apparently both are in the same situation. And don't even mention state schools or I will rofl my guts out. :D

But what about the poor Classicists. On state schools, let me point out that at the one I have just joined GCSE Latin is compulsory.

 

[goldenquagsire]

But what about the poor Classicists. On state schools, let me point out that at the one I have just joined GCSE Latin is compulsory.

What the.

You don't live on some remote Scottish island that's still in the 1950s, do you?




oh and latin is cool and i would learn it if it wasn't for the fact that they made us take french and my three GCSE options were already pretty much chosen (although in retrospect geography is a bit shit and given this hindsight i would have chosen something else - pooooossibly latin, but perhaps art?).

 

[Dannichu]

Because maths is hard. D:

 

[surskitty]

Because maths is hard. D:

This is kind of off-topic but I had the most horrible mental image ever. Are you aware that there is a talking Barbie doll that says, "Math is hard."

because if you are

and you intended for that reference

I am so very disturbed right now.



ffs why would you not want to learn stuff >:|

 

[Jetx]

I already know quite a lot about maths, for my age. But man, I hate learning the blasted subject so much that I find it hard to concentrate. It doesn't help that all my previous teachers, especially the one I have now and am stuck with until I finish GCSEs, can't seem to understand that my brain does not work fast, not even with easy calculations. I need to think everything through, do it twice, go over what I just did thinking I did it wrong, and then spend even longer writing with my slow, slow hands. Is working fast really important in jobs that use a lot of maths or something?

There's a few people in here who obviously know their stuff when it comes to maths. That's good stuff, but I despise it and can't wait until I don't need to do it any more. Over the course of my life I've gone from Maths being my favourite subject and English being my least to the complete opposite. Even when I do feel like I understand what the teacher is talking about, as soon as I look at some text book all the mathematical symbols and algebraic equations swirl together in a huge mass that hurts my brain. I normally just glance at what the person next to me is doing, figure it out, and then try to do it myself with the rest of the questions :(

 

[opaltiger]

Statistics is not math. >:||||||||||

I would be much obliged if you told my school :(

 

[Murkrow]

Me too.

*Looks at the massive pile of maths statistics homework I got today. * <_<

 

[Tailsy]

What the.

You don't live on some remote Scottish island that's still in the 1950s, do you?

...

 

[goldenquagsire]

Welcome to the Future, ancient traveller! Did you know that the internet now comes in tubes?

 

[Tailsy]

We recently invented the gaseous form. You're so behind.

 

[Dannichu]

This is kind of off-topic but I had the most horrible mental image ever. Are you aware that there is a talking Barbie doll that says, "Math is hard."

because if you are

and you intended for that reference

I am so very disturbed right now.

Haha, no, but now I'm very, very amused.

Eh, I don't think being unable to do maths is a huge sin, just like not having perfect spelling is. Why do people think it's okay to be bad at sports? Why do people think it's okay to be awkward in social situations? Nobody's good at everything, and the one thing I think it's not alright to do is to look down on someone because they have a weakness you don't.

Can you tell it's a sore spot?

 

[surskitty]

Bad at maths isn't the issue. Being bad at maths and unwilling to even try to not be bad at it is, however.

 

[Dannichu]

Still, I don't see it as any worse than being bad at drawing but not practicing, being unfit and refusing excersise or being shy and refusing to go out and meet people.
Everyone has things they're not good and and will only become better with time and effort. A maths genius might not have time to go out and become an athelete, while a professional runner might not have time to learn geometry and it might be that neither of them have bothered to learn to play an instrument. I don't see why one's more acceptable than the other.