{"id":6410,"date":"2012-07-30T02:04:27","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T09:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flomu.net\/blog\/?p=6410"},"modified":"2018-12-20T00:05:46","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T07:05:46","slug":"on-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flomu.net\/blog\/2012\/07\/on-math\/","title":{"rendered":"On math"},"content":{"rendered":"

Please excuse this non-anime article.<\/p>\n

A New York Times article<\/a> has been making the rounds on the Internet recently.  In it, a retired professor of political science says that algebra should not be taught in schools, and that math in general has very few real-world applications.  He goes on to say that knowledge of math is used as a deciding factor in otherwise un-mathy environments (college applications, for example), and that this bars brilliant people from achieving their full potential.<\/p>\n

These arguments hinge on two key claims:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Math in school is useless.<\/li>\n
  2. Math is not a good measure of intelligence (brilliance, etc.).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As I said on twitter,<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Come September, I’m going to be a third year in college.  I’ve only just entered the world of upper division physics, so I haven’t had the decades of experience others might have.  But even I know that math is not useless<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    Firstly, the more minor reason: math inspires<\/strong>.  Science is the single most important field of study in all of human history, to the point where we equate knowledge with science.  And to just imagine somebody proposing we cut out the very foundation of science from education… it’s infuriating.<\/p>\n

    Math is a subject that makes children interested<\/em> in STEM-related fields.  And if not that, it’s an Honest-to-God prerequisite for everything in science.  Biology, medicine, physics, chemistry, engineering, computer science, and more.  Without algebra (or calculus), students would be denied the opportunity to move into these fields.  And in the middle of a technological revolution, these jobs represent the future of white-collar employment.<\/p>\n

    Secondly, subjects like math and science give students invaluable tools<\/strong> to handle all sorts of problems in life.  This ranks up there on the list of overused cliches, but it’s really true.  The mathematics\/science courses I took in middle school and high school were:<\/p>\n