Teaching Maths

[poliphilo]

A new report, commissioned by the Tories, is recommending that children be taught maths until they're 18.  I so disagree.

Firstly, because lots of people are number blind and it's cruel to keep them slaving away. ( I'm one. Thanks to some very good teaching I passed my "O" level at the second attempt, dropped the subject with a sigh of relief and promptly went back to counting on my fingers.) 

Secondly because these days we've got calculators. 

Leave maths to those with an aptitude for it (like Ailz). 

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I've worked in a so called quantitative discipline for 25 years and a litle elementary algebra was worthwhile or calculating molar concentrations and the like, and the concepts of differential calculus e.g. acceleration is the rate of change of speed over time... other than that most of what I learned at O level has been completely useless. Going on to age 18 would have been a total waste of time. What might have been useful is sone logical thinking around the use and misuse of statistics.