Welcome to Gaia! ::

I've just realized that I live among idiots.

The local high school (Yes, High School!) teaches Integrated Math. Do you know what Integrated Math is? Let's go back to the sixth grade. Maybe throw a little fourth-grade in there for spice.

I was tutoring a kid who was 17 and in integrated mathematics, and he whipped out a calculator to do 5-(-2)! WHY!?!?

Are students really being dumbed down this much? Are Algebra 2 classes ceding to basic multiplication? Why can't they understand that y=mx+b? It's that simple!

*long, slow, deep breath*

OK. Discuss.

this is one of the reasons i hated my high school, i was forced to take integrated math as well, which put be behind in math enough so it was impossible for me to meet my prerequisites in high school for physics.

which is why in 17 days i'll be paying for high school physics in college.

I'd guess it's like General Maths here in Australia.

Basically, you're going to become a secretary or whatever, and the only maths you'll need is to fill out your tax returns. All the rest involves hoping people don't cheat you, and/or having someone else better at maths around.



Also, with regards to using calculators for menial things, there need to be more times when you're required to work without a calculator, to wean people off their dependancies.

First year maths at my university (UNSW) you aren't allowed a calculator for any of the class tests for example, so as to force people to learn their absolute trig values (sinπ/6 = 0.5, etc.), long division, etc., rather than just using a calculator for everything.

When I was in early high school there were also some no calculator tests, although they disappeared as I got into the higher years, along with tests of English literacy.

I've also seen an over-dependance on calculators. For the most part I'm not against the *judicious* use of calculators, but I do think that basic arithmetic is best done without.

I think I related (and equally interesting question) is "where should one draw the line?" (mild pun intended). Calculators can be used for more than just basic arithmetic. With a graphing calculator a student can find zeros (with reasonable precision) to most equations that they're apt to encounter. For the most part I think this is a good thing, but I think if often gets in the way of building intuition about the more common functions.

So what do you guys think? When is a calculator appropriate and when is one not?

Oh god emo I hate the Integrated Mathematics Program >.<

My entire school uses the IMP program; it appears to have turned ~300 very bright kids into blithering idiots. ><

My teacher didn't even know what a Μöbius strip is emo

They stuck me in IMP2 because I was entering high school as a junior (four years in an alternative school razz ), despite the fact that I've been teaching myself Calculus stare

Me too! lol

This stuff sounds like foundation level maths here
it's the most basic of the basic, and I don't think honours is that hard, never mind ordinary or foundation

I am a thirteen year old self-taught mathematical analysis student (I am using Kolmogorov and Fomin's book). I had to suffer through the detrimental integrated algebra curriculum this year.

Whose brilliant idea was this?

Things are so shaken and just wrong with this curriculum. Math builds on itself, and is not meant to be "stirred" the way integrated math is. Switching rapidly between concepts only confuses kids -- at least the way it was done. We went from standard deviation one day to the Pythagorean Theorem the next! If they could show how different areas of math relate, this would be an entirely different thing; I'm all for that.

Secondly, application: will you ever need to factor a second-degree polynomial (not counting you engineers and physicists out there)? If not, then why are we teaching these ridiculous "word problems"? We need to teach real application -- let's introduce some algebra based physics.

Wait a minute! These applications aren't any more useful than the so-called "ridiculous word problems"!

...This may be true. However, I firmly believe that we cannot neglect mathematical and scientific education. Why? Every area of academia contributes to a better understanding of this great big world we inhabit. Why do we teach literature? Or history? Because it's beautiful, because it will lead to satisfaction, because it helps us to understand.

As a natural consequence of these philosophies that I hold, I firmly believe that mathematics needs to be set on a more rigorous basis in schools. Okay, let's teach geometry -- but show the kids the proofs -- let them read Euclid, even. Let's introduce some naive set theory. Let's show how algebra and geometry are related. Let's give a deeper understanding of mathematics. Let's build intuition.

...And that's my rant...

Oh, everything and the kitchen sink. Some probability, some trig, some algebra. Everything that shouldn't be mixed in an elementary introduction.