FOR TRUE MATH IS A WASTE OF TIM BUT MY MOM ALWAY SAY THAT MATH IS VERY IMPORTANT,BUT FOR ME I THINK THAT MATH IS A WASTE OF TIME

This is so true JaShaun. When I was going to school there was only the teacher's way to learn math. I am so proud that nowadays that instructors are allowing students to use a multiplicity of methods to solve math problems.

What makes math an important subject to be taught and learned is not always about the numbers. It is not always about being able to solve an equation or being able to identify a polygon. The fundamentals, concepts, and principals of math are only a small part of why learning math is so important. Math is an extremely useful tool for teaching someone the important skills in problem solving, deductive reasoning, etc. Understanding statistics and probabilities is also important in every day life. You may not realize this now, but as you get older you will. For example, you will need to determine (or understand) the probability of your pay check lasting til the next pay period based on your needs and wants. You may want to purchase new carpet for your home. Will you know how to figure the total square feet it will take, and then figure your cost for the project? You may say, "I will just go to Lowe's and let them figure it and install it." That is all fine and well, but how can you be certain when they bill you for 25 square feet of carpet, that you actually got 25 square feet? They could install only 20 square feet and bill you for the 25. Not everyone in the world can be trusted. Math turns us into thinkers. Working with students on a daily basis, I have noticed that there is now a generation of children who are not thinkers; they are doers. Now, being a doer is good, but sometimes it is best to think things through and use deductive reasoning before jumping into the fire (so to speak). Children today just want to get started and finished, and could care less about taking the time to read or listen to instructions. I often tell my students that one day they are going to run right out in front of a train. Without problem solving skills and deductive reasoning, things can go from bad to worst in an instant. Consider your analogy of the fireman running into a burning house. Do you really think that is what firemen do? No! They don't pull up to a fire and just run into a burning building. They brainstorm, consider the probability of the house collapsing, or other dangers. Math is important, and as far as algebra, you use it every day; you just don't think about it. For example, if you own a car and you only have $20 and the cost of gas is $2.00/gal then you know you will be able to purchase 10 gallons of gas. And, if you want to take a trip which is a distance of 250 miles and your vehicle gets 20 miles to the gallon, then you will know you can't make the trip; or at least you will know if you learn your algebra. If not, you may be stranded on the side of the highway. lol

Unfortunately, it seems that you are faced with the same situation as are many other students around the world: You have a teacher that either can't or won't show you all the many ways math is used in the "real world". Unfortunately, so many educators go straight to college from high school, then straight into to teaching right after college and they never experience working in the "real world". Therefore, they don't know how to relate math to the "real world". They don't understand what potential employers are looking for and expect their employees to know about math. So, listen to someone who has the experience. I spent 20 years working in the "real world" before becoming an educator. I understand why math is so important to know and understand and some day you will too. Please, don't let that understanding come too late.

Andy, I felt the same way you do about math when i was your age. However, as soon as i graduated i found out how important it was in everything you do. Almost every job you apply for requires some sort of math skills....... believe me you are judged by the lack of math skills. The more math the better... do as much as you can. I felt so inadequate so many times because of my lacking math skills. Try to challenge yourself to learn for yourself later in life......I'M SURE YOU ARE VERY CAPABLE AND VERY SMART. PROVE TO YOURSELF AND THE WORLD THAT ANDY CAN DO COMPLICATED MATH TOO! It is something you will never regret. You may think you are only going for protective services but what you are learning is only going to effect you, not them. Try to understand, what you are learning will only change your destiny, not theirs. Make your life count every day in school and out. You can strive to improve yourself daily or just get by. Make it count man, you can't go back and fix this stuff. You must believe you are worth it and you are . You are a bright kid or you would not have posted your message. Now go prove how bright you really are. It doesn't matter your circumstances........ change them. It is your life and no one elses. GO MAKE IT GREAT! No part of an education is a waste of time. Try to have a great attitude about your life in general and you are a great kid.So go have a great life, education and all.... make it fun laugh every day at something even if it is yourself! Be happy and say I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT TO, AND WANT TO. I DARE YOU! As far as the gpa and college, they want people who can rise to the occasion. People with can do attitudes. Life is a team sport.... everything you do affects others and people want to be around winners. Turn around your thinking. Go ask a bunch of firefighters if they think math is dumb and a wast of time or cops if you need a good education. Your not thinking this thru.YOU ARE A WINNER NOW GO WIN!

I really think math us useless after about 5th grade, unless u are trying to major in some class to get a degree that is math or requires. People say all the time,"You need math to go somewhere in life!" But I ask to what exstent? I mean what fire fighter is going to need to need algerbra to bust into a house and save someone? he wouldn't be like,"Well the house is "a" and the wood inside is "b" and the fire is "c"." No way I think math over 5th grade is a waste of time and energy and all it does to students like me is bring my GPA down and makes it harder to get into a good collage, I am not even going to school for math I am going to for protective services. If I am a cop all I will need is basic math.(Add,Subtract mult, Divide) advanced math is such a waste and I hate geometry and algerbra it just makes my day harder and brings down my grade I have had to waste 300 dollers for tutors and I still don't get it. MATH IS A WASTE OF TIME.

I have always loved math. I understand how those of you that do not like math feel. Now that I am a Math teacher, I tell my students two things; 1) Use whatever method helps you to remember the process. I use money for many concepts. and 2) If someone shows you another way to find the answer and it works for every problem, you may use that way if it works for you. My way of doing math is not the only way.

Whenever I give my students a project, I try to relate Math to the real world. I also give the students a lot of creativity freedom so that the students will enjoy completing the project.

My hope is that my students will appreciate math. As I tell them at the they do not have to love math but they have to use math everyday of their life. It is great when I have students challenge that statement.

Gosh, math was not my favorite subject either. But we are talking school textbook math. I might be one of the few people who loved the new math, problem solving, exploration of numbers and all of the Cuisenaire materials. Like most people, I had mundane math. I can't remember it being a problem, algebra was ok, but I LOVED geometry a lot. Haven't used it for much, but it was easy to prove and memorize ... here's the problem. Sadly in many schools in America we teach math a mile long and an inch deep and it is often based on doing 200 of some kind of problem in each section to show that the student can do it. But wait.. there's more.. more drudgery in repeating problem after problem. Arrrrgh. I used to get a stomach ache when I had to give kids the tests that had problem solving , real problem solving as a part of their IQ framing. For the first thing, we never taught real problem solving, and then admit it, how many math books have you finished. I mean FINISHED. Never mind that testing is in late February. It makes you want to jump up and down in front of the school and carry a sign.. I am still teaching they are testing now and It is just after Christmas already. It is not the end of the year!!!! But what we do is to try to cram it all in I used to know what the last chapters were, measurement and so on. We never got there. I am sure we made the students nervous even if they knew math with our panic. Sometimes the "soothing' talk from the principal to the class also was nerve generating. Technology appears... Then, there was technology. Simple technology, games and puzzles. Thinking things... there were ways to build in practices about thinking. It started with MECC.. when there was license to allow teachers to have lots of programs as tools. I started to see that there were children who learning best in gaming ways.I happened to have technology a little bit in the classroom,but a lot in a job that I had on Saturdays teaching kids I had never met except in a computer classroom. I had no idea of their skills , tests, I just learned you can really, really teach lots of things in games, simulations and with the use of problem solving. Cuisenaire rods.. what wonderful wooden technology. At first I had the little handouts that went with them , and lo, I got it. Of course the rods went in and out of favor, but I hid mine away, even when they were threatening to confiscate them for Kindergarten ( well I paid for my rods so it was perfectly legal) . The students had to think to solve multiple problems with those wooden rods and the learning was transferable and memorable. I had them a couple of generations before a principal threw them out during the summer as junk. We also had a program, which was on Prime numbers.Prime number generator.. While talking about prime numbers at the chalkboard could put students to sleep, the magic of trying to beat a computer program which asked you a random set of questions was like black magic. It made us all attentive , thinking, and competitive. There were children who wanted to stay during lunchtime and challenge the computer. We did that a couple of times, but since finally the whole class wanted to stay, I had to stop that. We made many copies of that program. ( It seemed to ah.. disappear regularly!!) I had a set of puzzling problems, finger math, and projects that are similar to the math now in the newspaper but there was no name given to these number puzzles. I particularly liked the games like Hot Dog Stand.. Lemonade Stand and we created a list of acceptable games with which to practice math skills, but thinking, thinking, problem solving. Some of them were from the first generation of games from the Lucas Foundation. What most people don't get is that thinking is not necessarily a group thing. Learning math is individual. So we also used the Math Forum's ask Dr. Math. I began to love math. I thank the child who scared me. What did he do? I taught number bases and he got it and made a database to show how it worked and asked me to check it! ME? I had NO idea if it was correct , so I took math above elementary level in a special program at Marymount .. it would be called a STEM program now.. but then, it was SET. I say, I don't like skill and drill math so much. I am still laughing about the principal who called me in to ask me why the kids in my classroom scored at eleventh grade in math problem solving and only 9th grade in skill and drill. Since they were fourth and fifth graders I didn't think an answer was necessary. I just smiled and said I had no idea. Four of those kids are now at Berkeley two in math, and 2 in computational science. I only provided the pathway to new math kinds of learning. It was worth the trouble I got in with administrators. It was really worth it.