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

We all had "word problems" in school. From figuring how many trips Mary had to make to the store if she needed 7 cans of beans but could only carry 2 at a time to the "How long for B to catch A?" But rarely were they more than occasionally used. Most of the time was spent solving something such as 4x + 7 = 10 - 2x.

So we would as the teacher, "What will we ever use this stuff for?"

"You will use it all the time!"
"For what?"
"All kinds of stuff?"
"Like?"
"All kinds of stuff--just do the problem!"
"What kind of a family would only feed their kids beans?"


It went on and on. One geometry teacher I had was farily good at giving things you would use the math for, but geometry was almost a "seperate" math in a way since I could picture measuring shapes and sizes. But I still wondered the next year in Algebra II why B doesn't just get ready in time to leave with A..........


Eventually I did use Algebra to bid out a job with a salesman's commission varriable based on the final price but I still needed to make a set % of profit. Plugged in the numbers and it was like, "WOW, I FINALLY USED ALGEBRA!" (My assistant manager saw the calculations and admitted he couldn't get the result if I gave him a year.)

Years later an auto-loan customer told me she was al algebra teacher and somehow the subject of "why will we need this" came up. I told her the profit thing and she was amazed at my reaction. Even made me repeat the story so she could take notes for the class.

So after all this, I have to ask everyone, why can't school math teachers take even say one day a week and make the abstract more real? Is there so little time they can only do drills? Is it they have been in education all their life and no real-world examples? I can say that if I had been shown a few problems like my "aha" moment I may have been able to keep more of an interest.

Construction trades are often looked at as jobs for people who possibly haven't done as good in school. But math skills, particularly algebra, are essential for advancement in any of the more skilled trades: electrician, piping trades, sheetmetal. You need to solve for 'x' all the time. In the canadian province where I live you need university level grade 12 math and encouraged to have the same in physics before you can enter the electrical apprenticeship program.

Cement finishers which at first glance may not seem a mentally challenging job need to calculate the volume of concrete on all different geometric shapes on a regular basis in order to price and order the concrete.

Since approximately 10% of all jobs are in construction that should provide incentive for the kids. Of course the average teacher is not trying to direct kids into construction and considers it a career for the losers.

Most kids don't connect the math to what they will be using it for in the future, especially in algebra. I think it's a matter of caring for the students and also including the word problems in the curriculum.

But because the standardized tests for which their funding is relied upon is algebra (and not the word problem), the basic algebra is usually what is taught.

Certainly, it makes sense to solve for something tangible rather than something intangible. For example: distance, velocity, food, and monetary problems to solve algebra; card, lottery and dice games for probability. At least the kids will understand that there are real-life reasons to solve these problems. Of course, when you get to more abstract things, it gets more difficult.

There's a book that I got my daughter that I would recommend to all girls: "Why Math Doesn't Suck" by Danica McKellar. While it isn't any Twilight or Harry Potter, eventually she did pick it up and
read it. And as a parent, I try to explain math concepts in real terms. Last week, I was explaining to her the wonders of Pi. "What's the area of a pie in a 2 x 2 box? Pi!

Quote: AZDuffman

"What kind of a family would only feed their kids beans?"

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

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Funny thing is, I use more math, participating in some of the threads right here on this board, than I do in my regular life. OK, I use Excel, but I still gotta come up with the correct formulas...

At many car forums, math has pretty much taken over. Kids want to know how to maximize the efficiency of their turbos; they learn air flow, mixture density, piston speed, heat factors, etc. Sure, there are still the guys who bolt a fart can muffler onto a Cavalier. But there are also guys who make their own fuel rails and intakes and exhaust manifolds.

I find that fascinating. They don't learn math, or engineering; they learn what they need to know to get what they want. At the same time, they learn how numbers represent the way the world works. It starts with being curious; "Why did you beat me? My turbo is bigger." And it follows with someone deciding to explain volumetric efficiency and air flow and turbine speed vs size. And it leads to success, which turns on the light bulb behind the eyes.

I think the house loans where you pay half the monthly payment every two weeks are a good use in everyday math. A quick calculation would reveal I am now making 26 payment equal to half my monthly loan ( or the equivalent of 13 monthly payments per year). So after 27 years of making an extra payment I would expect to be almost done with my 30 year mortgage.
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In reality the mortgage would be paid off almost 8 years early.

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.

Quote: Mosca

...They don't learn math, or engineering; they learn what they need to know to get what they want. ...

sort of like being a baseball fanatic, learning all kinds of stats, but not being able to take, say, computing batting averages out into different applications outside of baseball

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.

Reminds me of an old "Doonsbury" comic. Uncle Duke is the ambassador to China and he goes to visit for dinner with a regular Chinese Family. The kid does not want to eat and one of the parents says, "Eat your dinner-there are starving children in West Virginia who would be glad to have it." The kid apologized and ate while Duke said, "Wait a minute..."

I guess it was China until the late 70s.

It is so easy to take the idea "Why do we need to learn math?" and apply it to virtually any subject. Why read classic novels, it is just a bunch of made-up stories? History, it happened long ago - who cares? Science, what is the big deal about atoms and molecules?

It is not "what" is being taught that is of most importance, it is the fact that learning is taking place. Ultimately, an educator wishes for his students to take ideas taught in the classroom and apply them to better the world around them. Education is about making one THINK! When you were back in school, what class required the most thought-producing effort? That's right, it was math! That subject demands thinking, calculating and problem solving.

Go into the casino and see which people are having the most success - they are the ones who have the better math background, either from an educational standpoint or God-given number sense ability. Think about it, you came to this site because of the "beauty of mathematics" provided by the Wizard himself.

If one really thinks about it, math is the most IMPORTANT subject taught in school.

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.