This Math Doesn't Make Sense!
By Kade
@akruser13 (475)
Los Angeles, California
February 8, 2022 5:18pm CST
I helped my roommate's kid with his geometry homework today. Most of it was entirely redundant. I hate redundancy. Geometry in itself is important but even an architect in the real world, building bridges or whatnot, he's going to say "yes, this triangle equals that triangle, I need this thing to be at this equal angle to the other," etc. He's not going to say "oh yeah, the rule that says these two sides are equal is the SAS Property of whatever-the-hell."
Why is this homework making this kid go through TWELVE STEPS just to come to an end result that the shape we're seeing on the page is a parallelogram? Twelve steps???? It takes one step!
"Two sets of opposite sides are parallel to one another."
Done. That's it!
Twelve steps. Pffft. My favorite portion of those twelve steps was literally saying this line equals itself. And there's a rule for that! What jerk suddenly had the "genius" idea to stand up and spout off HEY GUYS! A THING EQUALS ITSELF! and call it a mathematical rule? And was probably hailed a genius for that?
Line EF=EF.
Duh.
This water bottle I'm holding equals - gasp! - the water bottle! We're going to dub this rule the Reflexive Property of Equality!
WHY?!
Why does there have to be a special name slapped into an equation for some poor kid to have to memorize in a series of unnecessary steps that says HEY THERE'S A LINE HERE THAT EQUALS ITSELF! COOL, RIGHT?!
I hate it, lol. I was good at geometry way back when I took it in school, but all of this redundant nonsense? Clearly I promptly forgot about it. Because it's STUPID.
3 people like this
4 responses
@sharonelton (30756)
• Lichfield, England
8 Feb 22
Oh, gosh! I totally agree with you. The amount of stuff I learned at school that I'm never going to need to know in real life. French. When am I ever really gonna need to know French? Wales is nearer to us than France, in fact it's actually attatched to us! And I'm more likely to go visit Wales than I'm ever likely to visit France. So why not teach Welsh in school instead of French? I really don't understand that.
As for geometry, when am I ever gonna need to know that stuff? I'm not likely to become an architect as much as I'm not likely to visit France! I'm not keen on all this redundant stuff too.
And they made us do woodwork! Why? Am I likely to become a carpenter? No!
I wanted to be (and still want to be) an artist. Why can't teachers ask you what you want to do when you leave school earlier than they do, then gear your learning specifically to what you want to do. For example, I could have concentrated more on the art side.
1 person likes this
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
9 Feb 22
I get having you experiment in different fields to see what you might like. I took woodshop as an elective. I kind of liked the class. I learned some useful stuff. I didn't like it enough to want to go build things for a living though, lol. But to force you to learn subjects and to test you on this useless information that you're never going to remember after school, what's the point?
2 people like this
@sharonelton (30756)
• Lichfield, England
9 Feb 22
@akruser13 I hated woodwork. I was so not good at it. And metal work too! I hated the smell, and I was scared of the machinery. I got my friend to polish up a metal plaque I'd made because I was scared of the polishing wheel! It was just not me.
I hated being tested on useless informative too!
1 person likes this
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
10 Feb 22
@sharonelton The tests! That's all any of this is. The government wants kids to test well so they can show off in front of other countries but honestly, what does any of it matter? It doesn't matter if a kid memorizes all these redundant rules for a test, forgets about them, gets out in the world and realizes they have no actual life skills. They spent all this time in school memorizing stuff that will never help them in the real world.
2 people like this
@ihasaquestion (8273)
•
9 Feb 22
They say if you master Math, you can master life's complicated equations. I wonder how much true is that.. I'm neither a sceptic nor questioning the theory.
1 person likes this
@ihasaquestion (8273)
•
9 Feb 22
@akruser13 Ha ha..I know what you mean. It's either the sentencing or the paraphrasing.
Example: Jack ate 4 apples. He threw one and had lesser than ever before. How many apples does Jack originally had?
Made to confuse but actually total pure common sense.
2 people like this
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
9 Feb 22
Maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but I still don't get how saying a thing is the thing is even considered math lol. It's just common sense lmao.
2 people like this
@kaylachan (84703)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
9 Feb 22
....and, this is why I failed math. I would get so overwhelmed with all the "rules" that I gave up trying and did the bare minium and didn't care if I passed or failed.
...then I had to learn Braille math....
Yep.... You think that 12-step process is insanity? Try trying to remember the millions of combinations six dots can make, then try to do math with it. Oh.... and I graduated high school in 2002.
They should go back to basics, seriously.
1 person likes this
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
9 Feb 22
I can't even, lol.
Can't they just teach kids how to, you know, survive out the real world with actual skills?
1 person likes this
@jstory07 (148701)
• Roseburg, Oregon
11 Feb 22
It is stupid and I remember when two letters equal two numbers. That was really dumb.
