Maths is not taught properly AT ALL in school, amirite?

Its because schools are set up to teach the lowest common denominator, and its easier to teach the dumb kids how to memorize then it is to teach them why.

by Separate_Classic 1 week ago

I'd argue kids don't really know how to memorize either. I each foreign language (well, I'd argue), and kids can't remember grammar or vocab for crap. The ELA teacher gets furious because of them not knowing general spellings (japan=jepen for example). The math teacher also complains because they don't know multiplication charts and need calculators for 5x4. I love teaching the 'why', but not all teachers do it because some kids aren't worth your time. A lot don't have the critical thinking needed for why (not all of course, but sooo many.) the lowest common denominator you mentioned can not memorize things, I promise.

by Delicious_Air 1 week ago

Lmfao you should quit teaching if you believe that some kids aren't worth your time

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Lmfao you should become a teacher if you believe every kid is worth your time. Then watch your soul turn to mush. Happens to the best of em.

by karsonschuster 1 week ago

I didn't have an issue learning why math was important. Guess that's why I'm a structural engineer.

by IllustratorAny 1 week ago

It really depends on where your interests lie. For people like you, math is extremely important. For Joe who wants to be a gardener...? Basic math, yes, but all this advanced algebra? Not so much.

by Zdubuque 1 week ago

Usually 1.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Neither is grammar based on the title.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

But grammar and punctuation was clearly taught properly.

by No_Hamster_5505 1 week ago

Teacher here: Lol you think kids care when we tell them why they should learn something? Have you met a 13 y/o recently? What did you think math was for, cooking? It's about the attitude of the student 99% of the time, not the quality of the educator.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I strongly disagree. I always wanted to learn why, I'd ask, I'd struggle, and all of my math teachers up to junior year just said it's because it's how it works. I get it, not everything can be explained that way, but in 8 years of math, I'm sure someone could've explain why somewhere. And it's not just high school, I've had some absolute ass professors who just do not explain the math. Later with a different professor, they'll explain why and it becomes so much easier. Why teach something if you're not passionate about it and WANT to explain more?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

What do you mean by understanding why it works? The proofs of the most basic math formulas are outside the scope of almost all K-12, most undergrad degrees (except for math/stats/cs and maybe a few more majors), and many grad degrees. Many of them are extremely unintuitive. Using math as a black box is sufficient for the vast majority of engineers and scientists.

by Admirable_Humor 1 week ago

I'm not even saying a full proof, I mean just an idea or a relation for what makes something work. Log properties are a great example. Many teachers and profs don't show you why the log property works, they just say "hey, Log

=Log(B)--> A=B." Without demonstrating why. Another example is trig, what makes the graphs work the way they do? Actually, the best example is EASILY conics. Why are hyperbolas A²+B²=C²? Makes total sense! For ellipses, why is A whatever is bigger, where in hyperbolas, A is just whatever comes first? These are all stupidly easy to explain and make things make SO much more sense, and they take it from the realm of memorizing raw formulas to understanding why you are doing the thing you are doing. It's so much harder to remember "is it ellipses or hyperbolas that are a²-b²=c²?" If you just try to remember the formula, than if you critically think about it as "oh, the foci in ellipses are closer than they are in hyperbolas, so the ellipses will be the smaller equation."

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I have a memory of a math class, where we were learning derivative (not sure about the name, not english native). We had the full class, and not even once we were told what it is used for or how it applies in real life. Then two or three days later we are doing a random math exercise where we have to use it to calculate the optimal surface to make a cylinder for a tin can business or something like that. And derivative was the way to get the answer, and it clicked. But not even once the teacher told us anything except "here are the rules of derivative, memorize them". Great teaching.

by plittle 1 week ago

Exactly. Getting to know WHY you'd use it and what specifically makes it work, not only makes understanding and remembering easier, but may actually inspire people to WANT to learn more.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

On the teacher's end it's also way easier to teach students if they're engaged and understand what they're doing, or WANT to know.

by FamiliarVisit 1 week ago

I was trying to show a student how he could use math to make his job easier. His response was "I get paid more if I take longer" (this was about counting a till at the end of a shift). Some students refuse to learn anything they don't absolutely have to know immediately.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I would say, "no you don't cause you just got fired from your fictional job for taking too long"... now there's a life lesson.

by Zdubuque 1 week ago

Mr. Miyagi would say otherwise

by Anonymous 1 week ago

43 years old and what I was taught has worked for me extensively 🤷‍♂️

by Anonymous 1 week ago

20% is a fifth and 5*3 is 15 (from rote memorization), so a fifth of 15 is 3. The thing about that method is, nobody taught it to me. I got it by intuition. You have to be taught the algorithmic methods (15 times 0.2), but you get the intuitive methods yourself from practice

by GuessPhysical9281 1 week ago

That is also correct. Missing a few steps in the proof for teaching a child, but yes.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

It still works....I mean we don't get it because it wasn't how we were taught but my kids have had no problems with math. It's a longer way to get to an answer but it still works

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Why do we need to do the long way when the short way works just fine?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Because kids have easy ways to do the short way, doesn't mean they're learning how to do the actual math

by Anonymous 1 week ago

We learned the short way and do just fine.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

We didn't have phones or calculators in school when we were learning basic math. Like I said before, just because we learned it that way doesn't mean it's the right way, just another way.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Still completely missing the point I see. Learning different operations is like different exercises. You can still break all of those down to make it easier to think about in general. That's not to say there aren't bad teachers out there but conceptually it makes sense.

by FitMine 1 week ago

Well my kid has made it to 10th grade doin alright so I guess I'm just lucky

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I've bartended the last almost 15 years, not sure how that comes into play but younger people I have trained can read fractions so I guess that's good? Same with my electrical trade, they can read tape measures

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Doesn't IBEW require that they pass a test to become apprentices? That would weed out the ones who couldn't add fractions and such....

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yup, math is a major major important skill to have so if all these younger individuals are getting into the apprenticeship, they must be learning something....

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Apologies, I was giving a frame of reference for the people I come in contact with who usually feel the need to over share personal experiences.

by Unhappy-Park-4568 1 week ago

It really doesn't though from what I've seen.. I've seen kids get failed for answering 5x3=15 but only because when it came to their "show your work" portion, the kid had 5 groups of 3, instead of 3 groups of 5.. It's insane. And why the hell would we be changing things that work, just to make them take longer to reach the same equation????

by Radiant_Farmer_2573 1 week ago

Because of technology, kids these days have calculators, phones, etc, anyone can do 5×3 but do they know how they got 15? I mean it does because as I said, I have 2 kids in school, one is a sophomore, the other a 3rd grader and they know math. I'm also an electrician which requires a heavy amount of math knowledge and see it in the younger kids. If kids are failing, they'd fail either way

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Declining test scores are likely due to an inclusion of everyone. Before students that did poorly were dropped or sent to a different school or separated in "special ed" we failed these students but that wasn't represented.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

🤷‍♂️ not everyone is good at test taking, when they use it in the real world, that's where it matters

by Anonymous 1 week ago

The kids I know who aren't doing well in school have uninterested parents who don't follow through at home.

by Vivid_Degree 1 week ago

My kid is doing well (is even helping her classmates in math) but I find the extent to which it required me to supplement material never covered in class to get there to be frustrating. She was getting decent grades before but had math fact gaps that were common in the college students I used to tutor who were failing remedial math.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

You can find amazing YouTube videos that walk you through every single math lesson. There is literally no reason why any kid should be doing poorly. When I was growing up if you missed class or didn't understand it the first time you had to schedule time after school, now it's just a quick search.

by Vivid_Degree 1 week ago

5x3 is not the same thing as 3x5 though.

by Vivid_Degree 1 week ago

Cross product moment.

by One_Consideration677 1 week ago

The problem is we teach it as theory on a grid and don't apply it directly thru real world problems.

by Zestyclose_Tap 1 week ago

Math actually benefits from being abstract. You don't need to know every detail in order to solve problems. As a programmer, it is similar to writing more abstract code with a high level language, rather than e.g. machine code. You can treat lower levels of abstraction as black boxes and not know precisely how or why they work and still gain value from the system.

by Wblick 1 week ago

Public school in the US has no respect for children's time. There's so much wrong with it. One of the big mistakes they make is trying to teach children concepts before their brains are ready.

by estefaniakilbac 1 week ago

You had a very privileged education. Most people simply did not have that experience.

by MaleficentNorth2167 1 week ago

White privilege apparently

by Anonymous 1 week ago

This is why we should make kids who flunk take the course until they pass. You need to have these foundational knowledge in able to move forward, otherwise you'd be playing catch up every time or they'll just be a waste of time and resources. Language, comprehension, arithmetic - to not know algebra at 13 just meant you sucked at one if not not all of these when you were younger.

by Gutmanncraig 1 week ago

This is actually an extremely popular opinion, though not one that I agree with.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Why

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Because I deeply enjoy mathematics, am good at it, and feel as though I was taught it very well in school in a way that inspired me to enjoy it.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

You're right but teaching the 'why' is just as likely to fly over their head. Kids don't fundamentally understand the reasons why they're being taught information because they legitimately don't have the ability to fully appreciate the answer given their age and experience

by Anonymous 1 week ago

For most people it'll be pretty boring no matter how it's taught.

by wunschnico 1 week ago

A lot of it is bad teachers. My granddaughter failed fifth grade math. She's in sixth grade, had the second highest test score in the school, and is now in advanced math. She also loves her teacher. Hated the fifth grade teacher.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Why are you here criticizing how is taught without offering alternatives that you think would be more effective?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I took algebra in 8th grade. It was fine for me. Pretty much the same from grade school all through college. With ALL of my college courses being math heavy.

by sonya31 1 week ago

So what would the proper way be?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Maybe math in your life hasn't been taught property but did anybody teach you not to use profanity?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Oh all of a sudden, we aren't allowed to use profanity on the internet now?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Not when I'm around.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

oh my. yes daddy.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

"Math"

by Bridgette67 1 week ago

Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Teach math through physics It's such an obvious solution

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I think this varies from school and era, I was taught maths very differently to how I teach it now. If a kid in my class doesn't get something, it's probably because I need to think of a better way to explain it to them and their way of thinking. The onus is on me to explain it not for teachers to blame kids for not understanding. Too often kids come into class, thinking they're dumb because they find it hard, but as I remind them, it's like lifting weights for your brain, you don't go into the gym and lift something that's easy to do you lift something that's heavy and hard and you might need a spotter at some point along the way and that finding it hard does not make them dumb. Too often, there is a fear around making a mistake which is sometimes instilled by bad teachers while in reality, mistakes are actually when your brain grows the most. There are also just Jack teaches out there that think because they find it easy everyone else should Honestly half my job of getting kids improving their maths ability is building their confidence

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Glad you were able to test all teachings in all schools in all countries to come to the conclusion that Math is not taught correctly. More likely, you had a bad experience.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I mean, if you look at the stats, American kids do way worse at math than many other countries. And this is definitely not genetic differences, because internationally adopted kids perform similarly to their classmates. So it stands to reason it's probably bad teaching.

by flossiemurazik 1 week ago

And this has to do with math being taught incorreclty everywhere how?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

While I am not going to assert where the OP lives, they most likely meant it about their own country rather than globally. Most people, regardless of country, forget that the internet is global and are used to speaking to people in their proximity. Saying "the way school teaches math is just wrong" to your friends has the baked in implication that its "the way school in our country...."

by Alone_Forever 1 week ago

Apparently neither is spelling it. It's MATH. Not maths

by Radiant_Farmer_2573 1 week ago

Regional difference

by Anonymous 1 week ago

That's the great thing - numbers mean the same in every language. That regional difference is likely the reason why they struggle to figure it out so much.

by Radiant_Farmer_2573 1 week ago

Math = American english. Math means mathematics. Maths = British English. Maths = Mathematic(S). WITH AN S So, you are the ignorant American, who drops the S out of sheer laziness or ineptitude. I can't tell

by Theoschneider 1 week ago

At least I know algebra

by Radiant_Farmer_2573 1 week ago

American English is the only English that matters. Math > whatever nonsense the rest of the world does.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

America's education system is an abysmal failure

by Anonymous 1 week ago

🙄

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Well none of the maths; geometry, algebra, trig, calculus and so on are in congruence with each other so thats why a lot of people don't get it....

by Affectionate_Pen 1 week ago

Maths are not taught properly

by Anonymous 1 week ago