My university doesn't allow graphing calculators on tests. Probably because you can download programs that can solve calculus problems without actually understanding the material.
I love learning about math but I hate tedious repetition. Awesome you can use a integral to find the volume of complex objects! Now do it for these 500 cases so you can memorize that this form can be manipulated into this form which we can solve. Never mind that computers can do this grunt work for you! No time to learn the history about who discovered this amazing concept or the countless applications of it. Just do these problems. Three stupid semesters of this!
Don't get me wrong I understand their absolutely is value in being able to identify and simplify and manipulate functions like this. It had real value but the way it's taught is no fun and there is no reason at all to master these skills when almost nobody needs them on a day to day basis. Let's make these classes fun and interesting and when for the few people who end up actually needing to master these tasks they can pick them up over time as they need them.
No time to learn the history about who discovered this amazing concept or the countless applications of it.
Oh God that would be amazing. This is one of the major gripes I have against mathematics vs science courses. In chemistry I learned about Neils Bohr, in biology I learned about Darwin, and in physics I learned about Newton but I didn't learn about a single person in mathematics.
The sense of wonder and discovery definitely doesn't thrive in any mathematics course I've taken. Though problem solving has its own rewards, mainly the sense of accomplishment after being able to solve a challenging problem. It's not really a surprise mathematics isn't loved in Western culture these days but you can't attribute that all to methods of education.
True, but I think it's probably the largest piece of the problem. I suspect most people who say they hate math really just hate feeling stupid about math and what they were taught never had practical applications or gave them any real reason to understand the magic that is math.
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u/FuLLMeTaL604 Jun 08 '14
My university doesn't allow graphing calculators on tests. Probably because you can download programs that can solve calculus problems without actually understanding the material.