Comment Trials and Tribulations (Score 2, Interesting) 888
I'm currently majoring in a heavily math based subject in college, and I look back at my high & middle school career and wonder how I got here.
In something like 12 years of schooling I only had one decent math teacher who understood the material and could delve into it in more than one way. "Lectures" from other teachers were often nothing more than the teacher copying one page of notes they wrote years ago onto the board then spending the last half of class browsing the internet or grading while the students worked through the daily assignment of whatever algebra topic the book deemed important.
Mathematics in school was just rote memorization of vaguely related algebra topics, most of which I've still never had a use for. Teachers attempted to make the class "fun" by assigning nonsensical word problems or including art projects and other silly nonsense that only decreased my grade. I recall having to make some sort of 3-D shape out of construction paper in high school -- an absurdly hard task for me as I don't have any artistic skills. I worked for a few hours on it, turned it in, and got a solid C on it.
I was made to think I was a poor maths student because I couldn't stand grinding though 20 problems a night and would consistently lose points on the ridiculous art projects thrown in every now and then. (Seems like quite a few people deal with this tedium by taking doctor approved speed, but that's another story.) I get to college, have plenty of amazing teachers, and find out I love math. In years and years of schooling the only useful knowledge I gained from those earlier high school math courses were the basic laws of algebraic manipulation and such (which I had to heavily review before calculus). The other large majority was worthless. I'm not sure if I was just largely unlucky with the math program or if other schools are this bad or worse.
Coincidentally, the one decent high school math teacher I had actually had a degree in math. The rest? Education.
In something like 12 years of schooling I only had one decent math teacher who understood the material and could delve into it in more than one way. "Lectures" from other teachers were often nothing more than the teacher copying one page of notes they wrote years ago onto the board then spending the last half of class browsing the internet or grading while the students worked through the daily assignment of whatever algebra topic the book deemed important.
Mathematics in school was just rote memorization of vaguely related algebra topics, most of which I've still never had a use for. Teachers attempted to make the class "fun" by assigning nonsensical word problems or including art projects and other silly nonsense that only decreased my grade. I recall having to make some sort of 3-D shape out of construction paper in high school -- an absurdly hard task for me as I don't have any artistic skills. I worked for a few hours on it, turned it in, and got a solid C on it.
I was made to think I was a poor maths student because I couldn't stand grinding though 20 problems a night and would consistently lose points on the ridiculous art projects thrown in every now and then. (Seems like quite a few people deal with this tedium by taking doctor approved speed, but that's another story.) I get to college, have plenty of amazing teachers, and find out I love math. In years and years of schooling the only useful knowledge I gained from those earlier high school math courses were the basic laws of algebraic manipulation and such (which I had to heavily review before calculus). The other large majority was worthless. I'm not sure if I was just largely unlucky with the math program or if other schools are this bad or worse.
Coincidentally, the one decent high school math teacher I had actually had a degree in math. The rest? Education.
