bluelotus

>
>
>People do NOT need to learn math the way it is taught in schools. In fact,
>they don't need to "learn math" at all. Math is INSEPERABLE from most
>everything else in life, and if you live a full life, you'll learn all the
>math you need because you need it. It's there. It's part of everything.
>You couldn't escape it if you tried really hard.
>
>SOME people will love it and get interested and want to pursue things to a
>deeper level and learn more advanced math and do all sorts of cool things
>with it. MOST won't.
>

I agree. Most people don't need math the way it's taught in schools. I
suppose you need that only if you want to become a mathematician or a
physicist and want to communicate your ideas with your colleagues. Then
you need a common language.

I loved math when I was in school, and I even thought I wanted to become
a physicist, but later on I changed my mind and studied English
Literature instead! Go figure...
My second major was music, which I think has a lot to do with math, but
in a very practical way. No need to write divisions on paper, or
anything like that. You need to understand the language in order to make
music or write music so that others can read it.

Anyway, that's how I see math, as a language. The way it's taught in
school it is mostly used to separate so-called intelligent kids from
so-called dumb ones. It serves the school system and the political
agendas in order... Divide and you will conquer. It's not just math, of
course, but it's well intertwined with other values and myths within the
system.

Yol

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Fetteroll

on 1/12/03 3:01 PM, bluelotus at bluelotus@... wrote:

> I
> suppose you need that only if you want to become a mathematician or a
> physicist and want to communicate your ideas with your colleagues. Then
> you need a common language.

They don't even need it that way. But natural mathies can benefit from it
because they can grasp the why from the what. Most people can't.

Or they don't much care about the why, only the what. I was really good in
math in school. It was like puzzles to me. But I was pretty lost when I got
to engineering and had to *apply* the math I'd learned. I really hadn't a
clue because I didn't understand why. But I sure could solve the problem if
someone set it up for me!

Joyce