Dear parents and educators,
Don't tell children that math is hard or uncool, or something that they'll never have to use. I know that math is a subject that people love to hate, but teaching this attitude at a young age is just chickenshit. It imprints ideas that are hard to unlearn on your own. Let kids figure it out for themselves.

My mother brought me up well, the day I came home from school excited that I had learned addition she pulled out a muffin pan and showed me how to do multiplication. I was never taught the "math is bad" idea, and I didn't hear about it from my peers until I was nine. At that point I understood math and thought it was fun, so I didn't jump on the math-hating bandwagon. This made me uncool.

I heard lots of parents encourage their kids to hate math. Parents made jokes about how they hated math and struggled through it, then never used it in real life. Even my teachers (primary school through high school) told students they probably wouldn't have to use it, that they just needed it in case they decided to go to college. These attitudes lead a lot of my peers to complain about math classes more than any other subject, and dismiss its importance. And yet no one complains that they'll never have to know dodgeball later in life...

Fun fact: math is important unless you want to look like an ignoramus. Math isn't an abstract field with no interaction with other subjects. Mathematical concepts are used in majors you might think were math-free like philosophy, geography, mineralogy, architecture, geology, anthropology, psychology, ecology, and political science. Even if you aspire to a career with McDonald's, you should be able to do the basic addition necessary to give me correct change. Or if you want to stay home all day watching t.v., understanding the basic concepts of statistics will help you evaluate claims made on the news or the Tyra Banks show. Shit, even sports-fans use math for player statistics and rankings. And, of course, you should understand how interest and percentages work if you have a credit card or a loan.

I recently discovered that an estimated 70% of bloody primary education majors at my university are utterly confused by the following problem: if this ten-inch line (imagine it) equals 100%, then from the left end mark off 35%. Not so hard, right? (Mark should go at 3.5 inches, if you're daft).

Not only do I consider this an inexcusable failure of the American education system, I also hold parents and educators responsible for propagating negative opinions of math. Pull your head out of your ass and stop discouraging kids from learning.

Thanks,
Exempt
(Exempt OH WOW, VICODIN, Fri 5 Mar 2010, 23:36, 17 replies)

No norks then?
.
( Greenbat, Fri 5 Mar 2010, 23:41, closed)

Not until you admit you like math(s)
Wait, no... probably shouldn't go down that road again.
(Exempt OH WOW, VICODIN, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 2:28, closed)

Bugger :(
Actually, you make a very good point. Over here, anyone who has a go at doing well in school is automatically labelled a nerd. The upshot is a large part of the population who are illiterate. I'm doing an apprenticeship. The government has specified that all apprentices must do "key skills" as part of their training. These are courses in maths, english and IT to bring you up to the level you should have left school with, but didn't.
( Greenbat, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 8:28, closed)

Do you mean...
Maths?

And yes, maths is bad. Multiplication gives you AIDS, and division gives you cancer.

Trigonometry gives you cancer of the AIDS.
( CaptainCrackerjack live trout, slow motion, Fri 5 Mar 2010, 23:56, closed)

yeah, what does it say about their English education
if they can't even spell maths correctly?

And it's clear too that Science education is in the shitter if 70% think that the world is about 6 thousand years old and was created by a supernatural being in 6 days.
( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 0:30, closed)

For the record...
I think people who believe in creationism should be forcibly sterilized, and those who advocate it to the point of wanting it taught in schools should be euthanized. Unfortunately being an American means acting self-righteous about any dumb idea that floats through your unexpanded brain. We're not all stupid, but by god the stupid ones are loud.
(Exempt OH WOW, VICODIN, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 5:48, closed)

so let me get this straight
You're cute, funny, enlightened, intelligent, and have nice norks. Are you single ? If so how do you feel about long distance relationships with random weirdos off a spurious website. Btw, I'm very tall, super fit, have a huge cock, and I'm very sensitive to the needs of the ladies.*

*may contain lies
(danceswithferrets is leaking sanity, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 11:49, closed)

Yep, still an American.
In the U.S. it's just referred to as "math."

Feel free to mock us for that.
(Exempt OH WOW, VICODIN, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 2:20, closed)

*mocks*

( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 10:24, closed)

in the us
19 stone is regarded as slim.

That doesn't make it right.
( disasterprone "Pyjamas caused the Holocaust", Sat 6 Mar 2010, 11:25, closed)

Here here!
I did my Uni degree in maths and everytime I told someone all I got was, "Wow, you must be soooo brainy! Maths is really hard!" And its not that much. It's like learning a weird language. Luckily I had supportive parents and other family and they all wanted me to do what I liked. And I liked maths :)

Do I get a reward or something now?
(Jack the sparrow dodger, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 8:02, closed)

Agreed with all of the above
Ours must be the only society in the world where an admission that you're crap at maths is something to be laughed about with your friends/colleagues, rather than an humiliating personal failure to never be admitted to.

Something as fundamental as mathematics is vital to society.
(Stuffed Chimp, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 11:38, closed)

Ten-inches minus 35%
Hmmmm.

I can understand why at least 49% of primary education majors would get this question wrong.
(stuntsmile, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 13:10, closed)

i have a reason to dislike maths
after being rather good at it until year 8, i moved into the class of mr. mcdade, the fish-looking bastard. i had been off school ill, so needed to catch up. however, he would not help me, he simply penalised me for not knowing what i was meant to be doing. i complained to the head of year, nothing was done. i complained to the headmaster, i was told to stop making waves. i tried to do the work i was set, which at that time was algebra and trigonometry. due to the fact that, although i could give the correct answers, i was unable to show how i did it, my work was marked as incorrect. i received an F-grade in my GCSEs.
i tried again in college, then for a third time in night school. each time, trigonometry fucked me up. i finally managed to scrape a D. i won't be trying again.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 18:51, closed)

WooHoo! XKCD time:
xkcd.com/435/
edit - also:
xkcd.com/447/ , and probably 30% of the rest of them.
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 18:58, closed)

Mass reply:
Greenbat - That sounds about right. I don't know about where you live, but here all you need to be a high school teacher is a degree and willingness to work for minimum wage (and not be a registered sex offender, probably).

danceswithferrets - Yes, single. I'd be fine with having an internet harem of eccentrics. And don't lie about your cock being "huge," we all know it's elephantine.

disasterprone - Well now you're just shooting monkeys out of your butt.

Jack the sparrow dodger - Your reward is to be considered a brainy nerd for the rest of your life. So, what did you think of Battlestar Galactica S4E9? Gaeta lost his leg, that's dramatic.

Smash Monkey - One bad teacher can ruin things. My mother was going to major in mathematics when she was in college back in the day. However, one of her math professors would smell her hair and ask her to give him her hair if she ever cut it off. That's not off-putting at all...
(Exempt OH WOW, VICODIN, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 20:38, closed)

I'm in Britain
Part of our problem is uncontrollable children. All they have to do is say Sir looked at me funny and the teacher has a permenant record of an abuse allegation. I went to a fairly normal secondary school, where every class resembled a chimps tea party. Dad (ex soldier, served in NI during the 70's, built like a brick shithouse) tried teaching, but could rarely get the class to sit still and shut up so he could actually teach. He knew a lot of teachers who had time off from stress.
( Greenbat, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 20:56, closed)