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Is Math Worth the Sacrifice

By: Robert Duval

Generation after generation, the complaint has been always"Is there any reason to learn math? I'll never need to use it in the concrete world. My desire is to be a fireman or a cowboy or a news reader and they don't need to know what a number is. Today, with the existence of electronic devices and even calculators on the cell phones which are skillfully operated by young children, we really have to ask ourselves a question. Why should someone learn the formulas and memorize the multiplication tables they learn in class Is there any point to the effort involved in memorization of formulas and procedures when you only need to punch in a symbol to receive a digital answer to what you asked?

The answer to the question has some complexity, which goes a bit further the evident. It is clear that no one likes to memorize just for the sake of memorizing; nevertheless, the foundations is what is usually better learned initially. It is possible that reversing the order of math studies might do much toward helping students to understand why the study of math can be helpful.

Among the reasons why the study of math is necessary is that it creates the need for students to read and comprehend, which also encourages them to learn how to organize their cognitive processes and to be able to see depth in more challenging problems. The formulas by themselves won’t help to comprehend how to apply a formula. In order to master that ability, the students need to get their brains active in order to recognize patterns and elements that will allow them to associate knowledge and to gain understanding. To be able to lay out the parameters of the math problem will help a student learn the same procedure for other fields of study as well.

In addition to learning how to organize your thinking due to math, you will need to understand how to apply formulas and procedures in order to come up with the answer to the questions. In short, unless you really understand something about how math works, it won’t do any good to help with typing the numbers into the calculator. While the actual calculation performed by a calculator does greatly simplify even routine problem solving, to raise three generations of students with no understanding of how to use a calculator to establish which of two items in different sized containers costs more is a travesty of the concept of mathematics education. Many adults fail to understand the concept of reconciling a bank statement, or calculating true cost of an adjustable rate mortgage.

This state of affairs in American education is difficult at best. Standardized tests put in evidence a decrease in the math understanding of our students and the tendency doesn’t seem to get any signs of getting reverted in the short-run. Criticism of teachers for 'teaching to the test' wide and strong, but in the case of math, it is hard to see how logic and inductive reasoning which are needed to solve most real life math problems can be considered teaching to the test.

Article Source: http://www.articlemanual.com

Robert is an active member of StatisticsBrain, a tutoring resource that offers help with statistics homework.



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