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Typical Email from his teacher.
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<blockquote data-quote="Kathy813" data-source="post: 479878" data-attributes="member: 1967"><p>Okay, you all knew I was going to have to jump into this one.</p><p></p><p>I'm all for using calculators (particularly graphing calculators at the high school level) but I still think students need to memorize their times tables. At some point, if the student is ever going to take high school math classes like algebra, they will have to know ther mulitplication facts or be at a huge disadvantage.</p><p></p><p>For those of you who might not remember how to factor, factoring a trinomial involves figuring out the factors of the constant that will add up to the middle coefficient. Yes, they can use a calculator but it takes a long time to figure out the factors that work when the number is large. If they spend five minutes trying to figure that out instead of just knowing the factors that work, the student will not be able to finish the rest of the test. As they advance through higher levels, many problems involve factoring so it becomes more and more important not to have to rely on a calculator for figuring out the factors.</p><p></p><p>As far as when will they ever use higher level mathematics, who knows? But do you really want to keep occupations that do use higher math from being something your child can ever consider? Also, today's students are predicted to have several different careers during their lifetimes. I have adults coming to me to get tutored because they have changed careers and gone back to school and have to take algebra again.</p><p></p><p>One last thought . . . easy child's best friend got an engineering degree and is currently in law school studying to be a patent lawyer. She is at the top of her class in law school while only being a C student while studying electrical engineering. easy child asked her why she is doing so well in law school and she replied that her math and science background taught her how to think logically and sequentially which is necessary when applying the laws they are taught to win cases. She said the other students are very bright also and know all of the laws but have trouble getting from step A to step Z to prove their case. She said it is just like doing a proof from geometry. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>I tell that story to my students every time they say . . . "when are we ever going to use this?"</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kathy813, post: 479878, member: 1967"] Okay, you all knew I was going to have to jump into this one. I'm all for using calculators (particularly graphing calculators at the high school level) but I still think students need to memorize their times tables. At some point, if the student is ever going to take high school math classes like algebra, they will have to know ther mulitplication facts or be at a huge disadvantage. For those of you who might not remember how to factor, factoring a trinomial involves figuring out the factors of the constant that will add up to the middle coefficient. Yes, they can use a calculator but it takes a long time to figure out the factors that work when the number is large. If they spend five minutes trying to figure that out instead of just knowing the factors that work, the student will not be able to finish the rest of the test. As they advance through higher levels, many problems involve factoring so it becomes more and more important not to have to rely on a calculator for figuring out the factors. As far as when will they ever use higher level mathematics, who knows? But do you really want to keep occupations that do use higher math from being something your child can ever consider? Also, today's students are predicted to have several different careers during their lifetimes. I have adults coming to me to get tutored because they have changed careers and gone back to school and have to take algebra again. One last thought . . . easy child's best friend got an engineering degree and is currently in law school studying to be a patent lawyer. She is at the top of her class in law school while only being a C student while studying electrical engineering. easy child asked her why she is doing so well in law school and she replied that her math and science background taught her how to think logically and sequentially which is necessary when applying the laws they are taught to win cases. She said the other students are very bright also and know all of the laws but have trouble getting from step A to step Z to prove their case. She said it is just like doing a proof from geometry. :-) I tell that story to my students every time they say . . . "when are we ever going to use this?" [/QUOTE]
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