Subj: The Evolution of Math

[robbie]

Quite true here in California.



The Evolution of Math.

Last week I purchased a burger at Burger King for $1.58. The counter
girl took my $2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from
my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3
pennies, while looking at the screen on her register. I sensed her
discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but
she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the
transaction to her, she stood there and cried.
Why do I tell you this?

Because of the evolution in teaching math since the 1950s:

Teaching Math In 1950

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production
is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

Teaching Math In 1960

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production
is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

Teaching Math In 1970

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production
is $80. Did he make a profit?

Teaching Math In 1980

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production
is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

Teaching Math In 1990

A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and
inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the
preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit
of $20.

What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class
participation after answering the question: How did the birds and
squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong
answers.)

Teaching Math In 2005

Un hachero vende una carretada de madera para $100. El costo de la
producción es $80 .....................

[MONKEYMAN]

Having learnt maths in the 90's i can quite agree with that lol.

[GrahamGarside]

I am often surprised how much people struggle with basic mental arithmetic. I get called rain man by my friends for doing stuff like working out the first prime number after 50 at a pub quiz while they all reac for their phones to use a calculator

[danrok]

Surely, the education system is failing badly when people are leaving school unable to read and right correctly or work out how change should be given in a shop.

How can these things be overlooked in all those years of schooling?

Those people I know who left school unable to read and write have since learnt either with help from their friends and/or employers. Why the hell their teachers were unable to do this is beyond me. Makes me quite angry to see someone miss out on an education just because the school didn't have a clue.

[GrahamGarside]

The problem is our current governing system is obsessed with figures. Hosptial waiting lists are only 4 weeks long, you just have to wait 6 months to get on the list and don't know how long you are going to have to wait until you do get on it.
Crime on the whole is down, but violent crime is on the increase, and murderers are offered pleas where they will only serve 4 years

So rather than admit there is problem in the education system, some buerocrat sits and thinks of a way of juggling the figures about to be able to make the claim things are better.

[Kaitain]

I dunno, I find people's lack of mental arithmetic quite profitable on occasion. I've just come back in from the pub, at which I met a couple of friends and had a drink or many. I went up to get a round in, two pints of Abbot, one of Guinness, round price is £6.80. I have a tenner and a load of shrapnel so I hand over the tenner plus one-eighty expecting a nice, crisp fiver back. The young bar girl returns with £7 in change for me. I tell her she's over-changed me by two pounds only to be told "well I put it into the machine..."

At this point I stop arguing. If she's too thick to question the computer then she deserves the pay she'll be docked for undercharging.

Not often thesedays you get 3 pints for under a fiver...

[Daniel ~]

What is math, how do you play?

[Kaitain]

Originally Posted by GrahamGarside

first prime number after 50

53

[Chesso]

I know basic math and possibly advanced with examples and some time but i don't see the point learning most of the rubbish they throw at you unless i was heading towards a field that required such complication.

Here in australia - aboriginal studies i mean wtf no offence i don't have a problem with most of em but what bloody good will this do me? The education system started simple got simpler and from what i can see now(recently getting back into it) it's just more complicated then necessary.

You could probably say this about alot of thing's these days i mean you practially need a degree in something useless to get into the army(im exaggerating but i think you'll get what im saying).

[Rondog]

Im the sort person who understands arithmatic fairly easy. English I suck rather badly out, so its all relative. But, I picked up Calculus after my second day of looking at it.

[Chesso]

I feel the same way im fairly good at maths but wouldnt go so far as to say im an overachiever or anything and i cant stand the english subject :|

[Daniel ~]

Originally Posted by Chesso

I know basic math and possibly advanced with examples and some time but i don't see the point learning most of the rubbish they throw at you unless i was heading towards a field that required such complication.

Here in australia - aboriginal studies i mean wtf no offence i don't have a problem with most of em but what bloody good will this do me?

There there now. It's always good to know something of the people our fore fathers mass murdered raped and segregated...if only so we know what lies to tell our selves about the nobility of man...

For instance, here in America, we are fond of believing that the genocide of the American indigenous peoples is all in the past.

Believing this allows us to do all sorts of really ugly things to the few survivors. You see we don't like having to maintain reservations, especially when valuable recourses keep turning up on them. We want them to "assimilate". We like that word, it sounds so much better than "exterminate."

Although, when you think about it, to a people, they mean the same thing.

So study your history! Your children will have need of the excuses for barbarity that history teaches!

[Chesso]

Oh i don't mind knowing history it's actually something im interested in but what i mean is it's not going to get me a job and yet the subject is mandatory.

EDIT: And although these supposed natives copped alot of crop from my ancestor's they haven't from me but i grew up around them and copped plenty for no reason. I can say this truthfully that their parents are also raising their children with lies, i had quite a few good indegenous mates up the coast of NSW very intelligent and nice people but are trapped by the other idiot's and their actions.

[Allan]

I learned my basic math in the 80'ies so I guess I'm good at underlining stuff.

[Abdul]

Im still learning Maths, well not now exactly but all the time, planning to learn some more at college. I dont think you can LEARN maths in a way, you can learn the methods in mathematics, and the rest is just practice, and then you know it, like naturally.

I agree that Maths is somewhat getting easier at Primary and Secondary schools, and not many people consider it after that...

[GrahamGarside]

The problem can't just be pinned on schools. It's about time parents started realising they have a role in educating their kids. My parents constantly taxed me during my youth, they'd throw maths questions, spelling questions at me all day long. Most of my toys weren't simply the crap advertised on tv that I asked for, my parents allways made sure I had things like lego, playdo, pencils and crayons etc..

Then I see my brothers kids, and all their toys are the latest fads like bratz etc.. they aren't allowed lego and playdo at their house because it's messy, my brother is dsylexic so doesn't really feel confident with numeracy and literacy, but his partner has no excuse, and they all wach far too much none educational drivel

Yet they are all surprisingly bright because their school does a great job with them and they really enjoy school but I can't help feel that they would achieve so much more with some effort in the home

[calgar]

as for the girl who diddent question "the machine" computers dont make mistakes unless you make a mistake using it or the person who put it together and programmed it made a mistake, simple as that

although, i cant say much, my mental arithmatic is pritty crap, although, im pritty good at working with numbers ect, apart from advanced algebra and *shivers* triginomitry.

oh well, as they say, there are 3 kinds of people in this world, those who can count and those who cant

[noob]

My mental arithmatic is ok, and I can work with numbers, I also really hate English as a subject (even though I really enjoy reading).

I find schools do very advanced mathematics, but they don't do the basics. Instead they rely on calculators.

When I finished secondary school calculus and statistics (when I was 18), I was far in advance of what my parents ever did. But the level of what was done without calculators, that was far below what my parents did. I don't think it's the level of maths, but the amount of basics, without a calculator, that is not done.

[Chesso]

I gave up on allowing my mother or other family relative's to help me especially with mathematics because they were told the older way back in england and they keep getting confused or arguing over it.

My granddad finished school at age 11 and my grandmother was a mathematician and yet i can't even finish half of high school .

Of course i was raised under completely different circumstances then they did but still.......