Why can't most school math teachers explain practical reasons and ways math is needed?

Quote: Wizard

Quote: DJTeddyBear

The same kind where the mother would tell the kids to eat the vegetables because "Kids are starving in Africa."

My mother said that to me hundreds of times. I always wondered how my forced overeating benefited the startiving kids in Ethiopia (it was always Ethiopia), but mom did not take being challenged very well, so I kept my mouth shut.

I think the proper response to "There are kids starving in Ethiopia" is "Name two."

Quote: gDGBD

I think the proper response to "There are kids starving in Ethiopia" is "Name two."

My mother's response to that would have been to slap you twice for being "fresh" with her.

I graduated in 2000 and my school experience from K-12 was that education is about memorizing and regurgitating, with very few teachers who teach you to think critically and question what they are being taught.

The standard homework for a lot of classes was vocab memorization, fill in the blank (basically learning to associate a term with a token answer), or short answer (another form of associating a term with an approved answer).

College wasn't much better, given the political stances that a lot of teachers weave into their curriculum. Distance learning was a godsend since I didn't have to sit in a classroom and listen to a bias teacher and a room full of peers that never learned to think for themselves.