Math is easy
Math has always come really easy to me. I saw friends in high school who really struggled with it. If I had to struggle with math I don't think I would have put in the effort to understand it. I don't see the inherent worth of knowing math. Teaching is sales. If I am not passionate about math will I still be a good salesman?
As a graduate student, I am questioning the purpose of high school education as it is set up. Why do these kids need to know math that they are never going to use? I feel like a lot of what I learned in high school was pointless. I was going to college whether or not I learned in high school because my parents instilled in me the value of college. My parents put in the effort when I was younger so that all I had to do was get decent grades.
Although, could my ease in math be due to the good teaching I recieved by my 7th grade teacher? Would it have helped if he taught me when I was a junior? Did it have something to do with the kindergarten education I recieved?
How meaningful can I really be as a teacher in high school? Am I just questioning it because I'm afraid I won't be good?
1 Comments:
You address one of the age-old complaints of high school (and even college) students. Why do I have to learn this if I'm never going to use it?
For me, the truth is bigger than the specific skills or curriculum content a particular course stresses. High school (and much of college) is about learning to think, to problem-solve, to commit to understanding or doing something you couldn't before. I teach literature and writing, and much of what we read, discuss and write is not "necessary" to what my students will do in their future careers. But they are learning processes: the process of critical analysis of reading material, the process of exploring their own opinions, and the process of expressing themselves verbally and textually.
Likewise, your students will learn, among other things, how to solve problems. The process sticks with you, even when the specific formulas have been forgotten. I don't use much geometry these days, but I frequently have to use the process of explaining/proving a theory or position (which isn't so very far off from proving a theorem), a valuable skill. I can't say our system of education is perfect--far from it--but it really does make much more sense that most are willing to admit.
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