Am sithin' mad

[ars_longa]

You will never need to know algebra. I have never once used it and never once even rued that I could not use it.

Yeah, right. I'm a moron so it's not a big deal for everyone to be the same kind of a moron I am.

Why do I complain, though? As long as people are thinking something like that I'll have some means to pay my bills, after they come to me crying, unable to pass 'this damn class that is, o horror, required to get a diploma'.

You'll never need math. Yeah, right. Listen to him, girl, the country needs more cheap workers to do unqualified jobs.

Comments

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

The algebra, even a beginner's algebra, is the greatest tool in developing systemic logical thinking that I know of. If you can't manage this, I would trust you, well, probably, to saw a button to my coat, but nothing that requires any highest degree of brain functioning. 'Cause, really, it doesn't come simplier than that on this level. If even that is beyong your abilities... sorry, hon, you're out of any competition as far as I'm concerned.

(You in this case is a collective. :))

[doctor-iola.livejournal.com]

did i say anything about algebra?
i had shitload of it. and geometry. and even got up to differential equations and triple integrals.
i guess, i'd have to agree with what was written below--a good teacher can most likely present the informaiton in such a way that it makes it relevant to the world.
and good teachers are indeed rare.

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

They are. But that's not a reason for flunking math. Gosh, if I had flunked each subject that was taught by a shitty teacher in our school, I'd have never complete it at all! Who said learning always supposed to be fun?

[doctor-iola.livejournal.com]

so what's the explanation for kids not learning it? just plain stupidity?...
that's not curable i'm afraid...

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it's not stupidity, but stubborness.

[dswdiane.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it is just that the teacher's style of learning doesn't match the students. A teacher who thinks in pictures, for example, may not be able to teach a student who thinks in words.

I had that problem with Statistics in studying mutiple regression. I had a teacher who visualized how it worked and tried to explain that way. I had to take most of that classs to my previous stat teacher who taught me Analysis of Variance and who could use words and logic to explain it to me.

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

I usually do both, if I think the student is not getting it. Thankfully, I'm not teaching anything beyond intermediate level.