Our Education system is a big confusion itself..
"Pay attention students. You're going to need this in your practical life." Said my maths teacher after writting an algebric equation on the black board. All of us on the other side gave a glance at each other making all sort of weird faces possible. With enormous curiosity I stood up and asked "Sir, where are we going to use them?"
The reply really disheartened me, a thirteen year old wanna-be education minister. He replied "This equation shall be used to frame another equation which is very important for your final exams. Now don't ask any more silly questions or else you'll be kicked out of my classroom."
This harsh reply of his gave a rise to few questions in my mind:-
- Are we learning to form better minds and personalities or are we preparing to score better marks and get high salaries?
- Are discipline and punishment inversely proportional?
- Is my education system holistic as written in the institute's bruiser?
I've still not been able to get satisfying answers to these questions.
As an education major who is specializing in math, this makes me cringe. Yes you will not use a lot of what you learn in math class in your daily life. You can just learn basic arithmetic and do fine. The bigger picture is that a lot of wonderful successful career options are math based. We need to get students inspired in math so they will dream bigger for themselves. In a technological world math is important, if you want to be a mover and a shaker! Math and science are the backbones to success.
Oh and you shouldn't strike out against a students for asking questions. Some teachers take it too personally when students have issue with the education process.
I never ever have used the equations taught in maths in my life afterwards. Complete waste of time and energy.
Great article