Why learn MATH?
“Why do I need to know fractions? Square roots? Algebra or geometry? I mean, why do we ever even need them in real life? I am never going to be a mathematician, and I hate math. So why do I have to learn this?”Unfortunately, because of the way math is usually taught, this is the attitude of a lot of otherwise intelligent people.
Did you ever wonder why almost nobody says, “Why do I have to learn how to read? I am not going to be a writer or a teacher.” Almost no one says, “Why do I have to learn how to walk? I am not going to be a hiker or an athlete.” Wouldn’t it sound silly if someone said that? Yet it makes as much sense as the argument against learning math.
You don’t learn to read so that you can just read schoolbooks.
The same goes for walking. You walk to get somewhere. To go and experience things. When you learned to walk, you were (luckily) too young to have negative feelings towards learning. Otherwise you might have said, “What the heck do I want to walk to Daddy for? He can already walk, let him walk to me!”
Now that you are older, you know that it wasn’t just about walking to Daddy. It was the beginning steps to get you to be able to walk anywhere you want and get to new experiences. You don’t have to be a hiker to know the value you get from walking.
Walking and reading are more basic things than most of the math you may learn in school. They are easy. But walking is easier than reading, yet you didn’t stop there; you did learn how to read. Why are so many people then, satisfied with stopping at something as simple as reading, and then being beaten so easily by math?
One reason may be because it is not so easily apparent that math and critical thinking have as many payoffs as walking and reading. One of the main payoffs is that it helps you to understand patterns in life and use them in ways you never have before. But it is not apparent and it is not likely for you to realize the payoff until many many years later, not unlike teenagers would not appreciate parenting until they are parents themselves.
If you can ask a person, “Do you respect your mind? Are you curious about your world?” and he says “yes”, he’s just answered the question about why he should learn math. If he says, “no,” then the problem isn’t math, is it?
- Copied and edited from an article in Math Mojo Chronicles. http://www.mathmojo.com/chronicles/2007/08/06/why-shuld-we-learn-math/
