By John Levy We all are familiar with the blank stare at a paper labeled “Solve for X,” the groaning, the exclamation of “When will I use this in real life?” and the sleeping students in first period Calculus. These are all relatively common sights and sounds both seen and heard in a high school math classroom. However, students crunching numbers, simplifying equations, finding the tangent of two pi over three, and drawing conic sections may truly have a significant message when complaining about the necessity of these courses.
Let’s face it - math is a part of everyday life. Whether you like it or not, you will most likely encounter adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing in an everyday situation at some point. However, did I mention finding the tangent of an angle in a circle that is expanded to three times its original size? No - and that is the exact problem being faced among American students: learning (or dare I say, memorizing) formulas, laws, and methods to solving complex calculus, trigonometry, and geometric proofs is not necessary to instill in young minds. A logical person would argue that these courses are necessary for engineers who plan to design the latest and most innovative form of technology that will change the way we go about everyday lives. A more logical person would argue that this is one of the very few fields that require this knowledge.
The problem that many high schoolers face today is that a challenging mathematical course may get in the way of what they find interesting. A social studies major has no reason to be in a calculus course. An aspiring marine biologist can’t find his place in trigonometry. A hopeful journalist serves no purpose even being in a lower level course like Precalculus, yet we decide to sit them down in these classes and crowd their minds with information even the brightest of math students struggle with. What happens next? Because students are so focused on the big hundred-point test on limits and imaginary numbers coming up, they forget to take interest in their subject of specialization. This hurts the student mentally, as the amount of information being memorized in all of his classes is often too much, and his transcripts reflect this, as well. Another logical person would ask, “What classes would students take if not a math course?” That answer can be proved with a few “real life examples.” Recently, I was filling out an application for college. It asked for information from my latest tax form. Obviously, I have never filled out a tax form, so I asked my dad to pull out his 1040. Afterwards, this showed up in front of my face: “How much did your parents contribute to non-taxable retirement plans and/or receive in untaxed income and benefits, such as child support for the most recent tax year?” This was a foreign language to both my father and me. He had no idea what it was, nor did I. He hires a tax specialist to do his 1040s for him. Why? No class in high school taught him to fill out a tax form or even what taxes are! I guess learning the quadratic formula is more important, right? How about another scenario:Your check oil light starts to show on your dashboard. While you are checking your oil levels, you find that your tire is quickly losing air, too. How do you change your oil and repair a flat tire? Do you even have a spare tire in your car? I bet you weren’t taught that in high school. Nor was I. Nor was my father, or any other American, but thank gosh I can find the derivative of a polynomial equation! Courses in high school need to be more relevant to daily life, especially when it comes to the mathematics department. Students today are drilled with busy work in high school that simply ends up going to waste. Students need to be taught more relevant information to carry on into what teachers call “the real world” and not some silly, obscure, memorized formula or equation. If this change occurs soon enough, students will be better prepared for the challenges they will face post high school graduation. And hey, maybe more students will begin to like school a bit more, too.
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Elena Caputo
Hi! My name is Elena, and I'm a senior at Wilson and one of the Editors of the Editorial section. If you have any questions or ideas or if you want to write, email me at [email protected]! Olivia MonosHello! My name is Olivia and I'm a junior this year, and one of the editors of the Editorial section! I'm really excited to write for the Paw Print again this year!
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