{"id":10949,"date":"2015-08-10T03:43:12","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T03:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2015\/08\/10\/mementomakomori-lookninjas-just-read-another\/"},"modified":"2015-08-10T03:43:12","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T03:43:12","slug":"mementomakomori-lookninjas-just-read-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2015\/08\/10\/mementomakomori-lookninjas-just-read-another\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

mementomakomori<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

lookninjas<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Just read another post saying that kids shouldn\u2019t learn algebra because they don\u2019t need it and \u2013 <\/p>\n

I mean, even if we pretend that the process of working your way through a mathematical proof and learning to apply seemingly abstract formulas to the actual work and going back and spotting errors and doing that kind of detail work is absolutely useless to the vast majority of us in our real lives (spoiler alert: IT NOT), you guys do realize that we are not in fact living in some kind of Brave New World dystopia where we are all put in color-coded jumpsuits once we emerge from our test tubes and only the children bred for high IQs are allowed to become scientists while the rest of us shovel shit, right?\u00a0 We are all the same teeming mass of potential at eleven years old, and the only way to see which direction that potential is going to go is to feed the young brain a little of everything and see what it latches on to.<\/p>\n

And also, ALSO, ALSO:<\/b>\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Do you fucking get why minorities and women are traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields?\u00a0 Do you?\u00a0 DO YOU?\u00a0 IT IS BECAUSE THEY ARE OFTEN DENIED A QUALITY EDUCATION IN SUBJECTS LIKE FUCKING ALGEBRA<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/b>Because they\u2019re not going into STEM fields anyway, so they don\u2019t need it.\u00a0 Because they\u2019re not going to college, so they don\u2019t need it. Because they\u2019re only going to get married and have children, because they\u2019re only going to be blue-collar laborers, because they\u2019re only going to go to jail.\u00a0 So they don\u2019t need algebra, because they won\u2019t use it.<\/p>\n

Because in the absence of color-coded jumpsuits, we go with other arbitrary labels to choose who our scientists and mathematicians will be.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t think I need to fucking tell you what they are.<\/p>\n

Mathematics is the language of the universe.\u00a0 It is literally everything we are.\u00a0 It is how we find our place in the spinning galaxy, our relationship to the sun and the moon and our fellow planets.\u00a0 It is the smallest chemical reaction in the infinite cells of your body.\u00a0 It is music, it is architecture.\u00a0 It is how you know that if you set the cruise control to 80, you\u2019ll be home in two hours (barring traffic).\u00a0 It is the precise curve of your shirt collar and the humming electronics that allow us to speak to one another no matter where we are.<\/p>\n

And you need this.\u00a0 You do.\u00a0 Because if you don\u2019t have it, your ability to converse with the whole of creation is limited to \u201cHello,\u201d \u201cThank you,\u201d and \u201cBathroom?\u201d<\/p>\n

STOP LETTING PEOPLE TAKE THIS FROM YOU.\u00a0 This is your birthright as much as it is anyone\u2019s.\u00a0 Seize that shit with both hands.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Every student deserves a quality mathematical education that will take them as far as they can go.\u00a0 We shouldn\u2019t be eliminating algebra.\u00a0 We should be expanding it!\u00a0 We need to make sure every kid out there is getting the best damn math classes we can give them.\u00a0 To teach them not to be afraid of numbers.\u00a0 To teach them to be excited about it.\u00a0 To show them the beauty!\u00a0 Because what algebra can do, and where it can take you?\u00a0 That\u2019s the stars, man.\u00a0 That\u2019s the fucking future.<\/p>\n

Better algebra.\u00a0 More passionate algebra.\u00a0 More enjoyable <\/i>algebra.<\/p>\n

Not less algebra, and definitely not no<\/i> algebra.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Also like\u2026this argument is great, I\u2019m not refuting it.<\/p>\n

But algebra introduces methods of thinking that are different. You may not solve for x in your regular life, but you may have a problem to solve and you think\u00a0\u2018if these are the parameters by which we are limited, what is the optimum solution\u2019 AND THAT IS ALSO ALGEBRA.<\/p>\n

Miraculously, things we learn do not exist in a vacuum.<\/p>\n

GASP.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

mementomakomori: lookninjas: Just read another post saying that kids shouldn\u2019t learn algebra because they don\u2019t need it and \u2013 I mean, even if we pretend that the process of working your way through a mathematical proof and learning to apply seemingly abstract formulas to the actual work and going back and spotting errors and doing … Continue reading <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[618,3259],"class_list":["post-10949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-important","tag-math","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}