âI wish him the success he deservesâ, a double-edged comment on a friendâs school report.
Another one I once read was âArthur has been at this school for two terms and I still donât know who he is, which is not complimentary about either of us.â
I have a degree in Maths, but I have never used any of it since. However, that does not mean that it was all a waste of time, because there are many general skills which you need for maths which are useful in the work place and elsewhere - that is why Maths graduates are sought after. The ability to analyse and solve problems, being methodical, attention to detail, the ability to express yourself clearly and unambiguously, and to think abstractedly. If you think Maths is boring then you have probably been taught badly, because it is endlessly fascinating.
I agree I was 'taught' it badly and am glad that some were taught it well or where would we be? Endlessly fascinating - I'm not convinced - for me any way, it's a useful tool. I don't find hammers fascinating eitherđ
It's the silly stuff that makes it interesting - I never realised what the Fibonacci series was until years later when I saw it 'drawn' on a piece of graph paper.
I never go that far - we took the Maths 'O' Level a year early (did pretty well in that) and then went onto and A-S Level, but I just never 'understood' differentiation and integration (never realised what they were for) and failed that miserably.
You cannot teach anybody anything practical properly unless they know what the result of the learning can be used for.Â
Given that engineers are mostly born and not made - the good ones, anyway - and the most direct applications of maths are generally in engineering (or in statistics), there's a good proportion of people who don't need to be told how to apply maths - it's sort of instinctive. I rather doubt that maths teachers have that nature - or they probably wouldn't be teaching it.
I know what you mean @NorthernJoe about it suddenly just 'clicking'. I had a similar thing at Uni with refrigeration - could not get my head around it at all. Until one day it seemed really obvious and simple. Now I can't figure out what I found so difficult about it. I always assumed it was just a hind brain vs conscious mind thing. The conscious mind is, for some reason, refusing to engage but the hind brain just works it out anyway.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
âIt's still magic even if you know how it's done.âÂ
I was helping a student with the literacy he needed for a C&G in refrigeration or air conditioning - something like that. His teacher hadn't even explained that the process involved taking heat out rather than putting cold in. When I explained what his teacher should have told him in the first lesson, it all clicked into place for him. This kind of thing happened time and time again. I think teachers are born too. Any amount of training and qualifications is useless without the instinct.
It's the silly stuff that makes it interesting - I never realised what the Fibonacci series was until years later when I saw it 'drawn' on a piece of graph paper.
Fibonacci numbers have many wonderful properties, and are of special interest to gardeners.
There was a phrase I hated from maths lectures "it is intuitively obvious" - it never was. I could get to the end point after a couple of pages of step by step working but all the natural mathematicians could do this in one mental leap.
My maths teacher at school once said that "it is intuitively obvious" and similar phrases were used in textbooks to save space on the page. He would set homework to fill in the blanks in the proofs.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Posts
Another one I once read was âArthur has been at this school for two terms and I still donât know who he is, which is not complimentary about either of us.â
If you think Maths is boring then you have probably been taught badly, because it is endlessly fascinating.
I know what you mean @NorthernJoe about it suddenly just 'clicking'. I had a similar thing at Uni with refrigeration - could not get my head around it at all. Until one day it seemed really obvious and simple. Now I can't figure out what I found so difficult about it. I always assumed it was just a hind brain vs conscious mind thing. The conscious mind is, for some reason, refusing to engage but the hind brain just works it out anyway.
âIt's still magic even if you know how it's done.âÂ
This kind of thing happened time and time again. I think teachers are born too. Any amount of training and qualifications is useless without the instinct.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjSHVDfXHQ4