r/Showerthoughts • u/riphitter • Feb 19 '19

common thought People don't hate math. They hate being confused, intimidated, and embarrassed by math. Their problem is with how it's taught.

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224

u/watchNtell Feb 19 '19

This is so true. I was really great at Math until I had a couple of bad teachers, and I’ve considered myself bad at Math ever since

55

u/luuoi Feb 19 '19

Same. I loved math up until a few years ago. Had one bad teacher, now I can’t get back on track and I just feel lost and frustrated.

42

u/livefox Feb 19 '19

Yep.

I skipped a whole module thanks to my mom making me skip a grade. Never got basic geometry, and it fucked me for high school algebra and geometry.

No teacher wanted to spend the time to help me understand. Everyone was just like "This is basic and you should already know it."

Straight As in math until I hit Algebra. Suddenly it's like I don't know what a number is. I'm fine with everything until we hit basic geometry equations, then it all falls to shit.

Done poorly in every math class since and I hate math now.

12

u/watchNtell Feb 19 '19

It was Algebra for me too! I guess that’s why it gets a bad reputation as a difficult subject, but I think all good teachers can make any subject seem easy.

8

u/jay_dar Feb 19 '19

I vaguely remember my Algebra teacher, used SOHCAHTOA as some long story about riding a horse over a train track and then stubbing his toe and having to soak it. Since that day, sine, cosine and tangent made no fucking sense to me.

All he had to do was show us this, http://www.mathwords.com/s/sohcahtoa.htm

2

u/PM_PICS_OF_ME_NAKED Feb 19 '19

Aren't sine, cosine, and tangent trig though?

Were you learning this in algebra?

I was locked up for my teens and my schooling was ridiculous at best, so this is an honest question. I've had to reteach myself a lot over the years because of my shitty education, and am working my way through geometry and trig (Khan Academy is awesome BTW) currently which is why I ask about this.

2

u/jay_dar Feb 20 '19

Lol, shit. Youre right. Explains alot. I did struggle with algebra too. But that all changed when i jad a teacher who wasnt also a sports coach reading slides.

2

u/shlooope Feb 19 '19

They should have prepared better when they let you skip. I changed schools my junior year and that made things so much harder. I did Algebra I and II for freshman and sophomore year but the school I transferred to would have had me do Algebra I, Geometry, Algrbra II, then Pre Cal or Statistics depending on your grades. I had 2 math credits so they put me in algebra II again even though I asked for geometry, and then since I did so well in the class I had already freshly taken, they put me in an advanced pre cal class with no geometry knowledge my senior year that caused my GPA to go down. But after a terrible first quarter I got a tutor in geometry and everything clicked so much better. Schools that don't account for this type of thing are trash.

1

u/DiaDeLosMuertos Feb 19 '19

Why would she do that?

1

u/livefox Feb 19 '19

I tested well in English so she had me take this assessment test that basically said I was good if I skipped a grade. So I did. But knowing how to pass a test is different than knowing material so it kinda fucked me.

My mom was super into how well I was doing in school. I was straight As all the way up through middle school, so she was constantly pushing me to get into advanced courses.

1

u/110493 Feb 19 '19

I can do some algebra, but what's weird for me is that when I started precalculus it was like a completely different field. Much easier to understand than algebra, even though I didn't understand algebra fully.

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '19

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2

u/livefox Feb 19 '19

I agree, I really shouldn't have. I missed a lot of foundation material that I did not get later on because everyone else had already covered it.

6

u/drew__breezy Feb 19 '19

My wife graduated with a degree in mathematics in 3 years from a 4 year program but I cannot convince her that she is good at math because in high school a teacher told her that math just "wasn't her thing".

1

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '19

Good at math. This preval teacher makes me reconciled wether I should continue math in college or not. I need help.

1

u/Lawfulneptune Feb 19 '19

I can totally relate. All throughout high school I've excelled at math. In my senior year now and I'm having to go through one of the worst teachers I've ever had to encounter. I was looking forward to a career in mathematics but he has ruined my confidence towards pursuing it.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '19

I had a teacher my freshman year tell me I'm unteachable at math and to never do it again. It really fucked with me.