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  • Locked thread
suspicious donkey!
Jun 26, 2013

GhostStalker posted:

I feel like I'm a terrible math major because I had no problems with using algorithms to calculate things when given actual numbers, but I pretty much fall apart when it comes to doing proofs. I mean, I head a hell of a time during Abstract Algebra, because while I could see where my professor was going with proofs done as examples and could follow it then, when it came time to take the exam, I'd be pretty lost on a bunch of problems. The Numerical Analysis course I took this past semester wasn't much better. Like I understand that proofs are pretty much the thing you have to do when it comes to higher level math, and I just can't help but feel like I made a terrible mistake deciding to be a math major.

The reason I chose math as a major is because I was so good with it during middle and high school (advanced classes through the entirely of those years, acing all of my classes), loved all of my teachers (with some exceptions) during those years, and came in to college with the first year of Calculus under my belt. Probably helped that I had a mom who drilled me on math during elementary school, forcing me to memorize the multiplication tables at second grade and constantly drilling me with math problems during summer vacations, which I always complained about at the time, but really helped me when I went back to school for the next year. Chinese moms, gotta love em.

Advanced classes in middle school (plus some help from an Asian test prep school) helped me get into the best public high school in New York, with the year's credit of Algebra I that's practically a requirement to get in there, and then I really had no problems with math in school afterwards except for failing to hand in some research assignments in an "advanced" Algebra II class Sophomore year that had a research component. Hell, I still love my middle school math teacher who taught us Algebra I and the beginnings of Geometry in 7th and 8th grade (to the point where I was looking to see whether he still taught at my middle school and whether I could go and visit him there sometime in the future) and the Pre-Calc teacher I had in Junior year who was the school Math Team coordinator (Math Team was huge, tons of kids got signed up for it by their parents Freshman year that they had to have multiple first period sections for all the students involved) and died of cancer a couple years back (his obit getting a mention in the New York Times). Hell, I even parlayed my math knowledge (plus a couple of years at aforementioned Asian test prep school on the weekends and during the summer) to get a full 1600 on my SATs (sure, I know that really doesn't mean much in the greater scheme of things, but it's something I'm still proud of).

I was originally going to do Engineering in college, but after a bad experience with a Physics class in high school (I mistakenly signed up for AP Physics thinking that it was going to be a research focused class like my previous Biology and Chemistry classes I took Freshman and Sophomore years which I had no real problems with) and not doing much better in it my first year of college, I figured that Engineering was really mostly just math plus physics, so I could drop the physics and stick with the math. And I was fine during my first couple of years when doing Calculus. Linear Algebra was more difficult, but I got most of it. Differential Equations was a bit wonky but I powered through it. Abstract Algebra was harder, but I mostly got it. Number Theory irritated the poo poo outta me, and Numerical Analysis was pretty much a foreign language, albeit one I got the rudimentary beginnings of due to previous experience in Abstract Algebra. Now that I'm just about 2 classes close to being done with my degree, I've been questioning whether it was the right choice ever since more rigorous proofs started showing up... Probably should just stick to Applied Math instead, since I was great working with numbers, but not with those damnable proofs.

I can understand why these new teaching standards could help students that have problems with math learn better at the moment, but I can't help but feel that I'd be so slowed down doing this kinda poo poo if I was learning it like this. The lower level stuff especially just looks pretty dumb to me. But now that I'm more experienced with math, I can see how doing addition like in the examples posted is like how one would do math in your head, it's pretty much how I do it now, but I needed a grounding in the addition algorithms with carrying the one and all that in order to understand it in the first place, and then developed the mental arithmetic stiff later. Like, my mom made sure to drill into me why adding works that way, and why you needed to leave a blank space on the second line when multiplying out two digit numbers, so much so that I could explain it to other kids when my teacher asked me to do an example on the board when we did learn it in school.

And now I go to a college (City University of New York) where the vast majority of kids who enter Freshman year need a remedial class in basic Algebra, and then never touch math again for their majors besides maybe a Trig or Statistics class, not even Pre-Calc. Hell, Calculus is a goddamn 200 level class rather than the basic 100 level poo poo it should be here...

I get that most high schools are dropping the ball when it comes to math education, although I didn't understand that at first because math came so easily to me along with pretty much everyone else I interacted with in my advanced math classes and my high school. Was talking with my brother (who pretty much had the same experience with math during middle and high school as I did, except he only went to the second best public high school in the city) last year about dropping test scores for underprivileged minorities (blacks and Latinos, since test scores basically stayed flat or improved for Asians) after the implementation of the Common Core standards, and he basically said that the two of us never had any problems with math exams, and if we could do it, why can't everyone else? I used to think pretty much the exact same way, but now see why that's such a terrible argument. If Common Core helps bring up these standards, and gets more people to understand math, then I'm all for it.

Just wish that it was being implemented better though...

Like I don't think that you need to explain the distributive property of multiplication to kids who are just learning how to do double digit multiplication, but I can see how it'd be helpful to some who don't understand how the multiplication algorithm worked. Didn't really cover properties like distributivity, associativity, and commutativity until my middle school Algebra I classes. Stuff like FOIL is also a lot easier to learn if you understand the distributive property, but my class didn't need it when we did so and we understood what was going on. Again, anecdote from an advanced class, but I guess some people need some help in that regard. Don't think you need to start kids on the field axioms and set theory concerning the Reals, Rationals, Integers, and Naturals that early though. Maybe high school before you start touching that kinda stuff.

i hope u find what u are looking for

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Coldstone Cream-my-pants
Jun 21, 2007

Lightanchor posted:

The best word defined on that page is rekenrek

Common Core: Now, what is your name? If you say abacus again I'll start cutting pieces off of you!
Abacus: Rekenrek....my name...is Rekenrek...

Lightanchor
Nov 2, 2012
i'm permabanned poster numberstomper58. i first started studying common core when i was about 5. by 7 i got really obsessed with the concept of "algorithms" and tried to channel them constantly, until my thought process got really bizarre and i would repeat things like "math situation" and "hidden partners" in my head for hours, and i would get really paranoid, start seeing things in the corners of my eyes etc, basically prodromal schizophrenia. im now on antipsychotics. i always wondered what the kind of "algorithmic" style of common core was all about; i think it's the unconscious leaking in to the conscious, what jungian theory considered to be the cause of schizophrenic and schizotypal syptoms. i would advise all people who "get" common core to be careful because that likely means you have a predisposition to a mental illness. peace.

Gulzin
Jan 3, 2004
A little gnome hasn't hurt anybody

gary oldmans diary posted:

i really wish we could throw a government dime into research on head start fade instead of just disregarding it

This, a million times this.

Al Borland posted:

Holy gently caress discrete math to high schoolers though? That's gonna be like trying to teach a westboro church member gay rights.

Counting, finite series, basic graph theory, and finite automata would be easy enough. I've personally taught cryptography and graph theory to high-school students as part of various outreach programs I've been a part of. I am not saying we teach it as we teach it in college.

Example: Geometry at the college level is all about studying isometries. We talk about reflections, rotations, translations in high-school without having to do things like prove the isometries form a group, or are really just functions from the plane to the plane that preserve the metric.

GhostStalker posted:

:words:

Like I don't think that you need to explain the distributive property of multiplication to kids who are just learning how to do double digit multiplication, but I can see how it'd be helpful to some who don't understand how the multiplication algorithm worked. Didn't really cover properties like distributivity, associativity, and commutativity until my middle school Algebra I classes. Stuff like FOIL is also a lot easier to learn if you understand the distributive property, but my class didn't need it when we did so and we understood what was going on. Again, anecdote from an advanced class, but I guess some people need some help in that regard. Don't think you need to start kids on the field axioms and set theory concerning the Reals, Rationals, Integers, and Naturals that early though. Maybe high school before you start touching that kinda stuff.

You are a representative case of over half of my math majors. I had the pleasure of teaching Abstract Algebra for the first time this year, and I had a student say they hate proofs because "in math there is only one right way to get the answer!". When asked where he learned that, he said he learned it in high-school. This is because our freshmen/high-school courses are about following a canned procedures, and major courses are about proofs (for which no canned procedure is going to help). Intro to proof in some form should be taught to everyone at some point (probably in HS Geometry). I hate that people typically do not get to see the coolest part of my field unless they already decided to be math majors.

Pure Mathematicians prove stuff. That is it. All the way down. Proofs are not easy, and they take a long time to be proficient at. If you like them, don't give up. If you hate them. then applied math is likely a better place for you. Although you had better get your Numerical Analysis and Differential Equations down if you plan to go the traditional applied math route. Alternately you could learn Operations Research or Statistics.

Also, they actually do put most of the field axioms in standard algebra texts (they explicitly mention commutativity, associativity, and distributivity). They also tell you that the reals is an integral domain without actually saying the words integral domain (kinda important if you want to solve (x+2)(x-1)=0 as x+2=0 or x-1=0). Most teachers just do not mention them, or do so once and then never again.

You can teach distribution without being axiomatic about it. Doing examples for kiddos is a good idea. Example: Multiply 53 by 34 using the standard algorithm. Now break up 34 as 30 + 4. Multiply 30 by 53, and 4 by 53. What should we do with these two numbers when we are done to get 53*34? Maybe draw simpler pictures with boxes "cube sticks" to give them the general idea.

Irradiation
Sep 14, 2005

I understand your frustration.

Gulzin posted:

No Chemist has to constantly hear "I hate Chemistry".

Bullshit we don't

Gulzin
Jan 3, 2004
A little gnome hasn't hurt anybody

Irradiation posted:

Bullshit we don't

The day I got my Ph.D. two people told me they hated math. Every time I meet someone new, they tell me they hate math once they learn what I do.

Is this your experience with Chemistry?

Irradiation
Sep 14, 2005

I understand your frustration.
Yeah kinda.

I probably hear it less since math is a more important in everyday use, but anytime someone tries to make small talk with me like at the dentist or doctor I get to hear about it.

Gulzin
Jan 3, 2004
A little gnome hasn't hurt anybody
That really sucks. I take it back then.

I thought shows like Breaking Bad and Cosmos would have at least helped the sciences in regards to public opinion.

Antifreeze Head
Jun 6, 2005

It begins
Pillbug

Gulzin posted:

The day I got my Ph.D. two people told me they hated math. Every time I meet someone new, they tell me they hate math once they learn what I do.

If it makes you feel any better, I don't dislike what you do but I'm sure I understand very little of it.

Antifreeze Head
Jun 6, 2005

It begins
Pillbug
Just kidding, lol nerd.

babypolis
Nov 4, 2009

i kinda get why math and chemistry get so much hate. they are both tough classes a lot of unrelated major had to take and both generally feel arcane to most ppl

Antifreeze Head
Jun 6, 2005

It begins
Pillbug
But for real, I don't hate math and am glad you can do it because its probably important for something and someone has to get around to do.

Greed is eternal
Jun 8, 2008
People on GBS having problem with basic arithmetic? Why am I not surprised?

Irradiation
Sep 14, 2005

I understand your frustration.

Gulzin posted:

That really sucks. I take it back then.

I thought shows like Breaking Bad and Cosmos would have at least helped the sciences in regards to public opinion.

They probably help on a superficial level, but I've noticed once people learn that sciences aren't really what you see from pictures in a buzzfeed list and that it sometimes involves countless hours of frustration just to produce a single data point people start changing majors real quick.

Richard Cabeza
Mar 1, 2005

What a dickhead...
I won't claim to have read all 18 pages of this thread because, well....gawddamn.

I think one complaint to common core is what we run into here in Virginia. Virginia doesn't do Common Core because we have a similar system called Standards of Learning. The problem with SoL (poo poo outta luck) is that the SoLs dictate what is taught, no more and no less.

Teachers here in VA teach to the SoLs and after that they give up. You're not getting ahead, you're not learning new things. You get SoL and that's that. SoLs control funding and school accreditation. How your school performs on these tests is all anyone cares about. Little Johnny will be a poet but sucks at math? He's an idiot and threatens the well being of the rest of the school.

These sorts of educational standardization really does just produce standardization. Instead of this becoming the minimum acceptable level of educational performance it's the whole and complete target.

Tezzeract
Dec 25, 2007

Think I took a wrong turn...

GhostStalker posted:

Advanced classes in middle school (plus some help from an Asian test prep school) helped me get into the best public high school in New York, with the year's credit of Algebra I that's practically a requirement to get in there, and then I really had no problems with math in school afterwards except for failing to hand in some research assignments in an "advanced" Algebra II class Sophomore year that had a research component.

Oh hey, sup fellow Stuy grad. Read the Math Team comment and I immediately knew what school you were talking about.

GhostStalker posted:

I feel like I'm a terrible math major because I had no problems with using algorithms to calculate things when given actual numbers, but I pretty much fall apart when it comes to doing proofs. I mean, I head a hell of a time during Abstract Algebra, because while I could see where my professor was going with proofs done as examples and could follow it then, when it came time to take the exam, I'd be pretty lost on a bunch of problems. The Numerical Analysis course I took this past semester wasn't much better. Like I understand that proofs are pretty much the thing you have to do when it comes to higher level math, and I just can't help but feel like I made a terrible mistake deciding to be a math major.

Yeah higher level math classes can be brutal. Most people don't get the context of pure math (I know I didn't as an applied math undergrad) and will view proofs really rigidly. The best way to think like a pure mathematician is to put yourself in the shoes of someone like Cantor or Godel. You're seeing ideas/algorithms applied to novel situations that only exist in your head and you have to try to prove it to the mathematical community.

Developing intuition plays a huge part in grounding yourself in these types of proof classes. The very first thing to do is understand what you're trying to prove and have examples and counter-examples help you limit the search space. Or else you're just staring at the page going WTF because you have an 'infinite' search space (yes this is a fuzzy concept, maybe the better idea is combinatoric to the tools that you have to mash together to prove a concept.) Intuition 'grounds' the 'degrees of freedom' so you're not performing an insane exhaustive search.

For Abstract Algebra in college, the context is that you're working with regular algebra but generalized so you relax constraints (assumptions) and get new generalized results. So extra cases could come to mind and help you visualize what you're trying to solve.

For Real Analysis, I tried to 'brute force' the class and it was not pretty. Rudin is a hell of a book to learn from starting out. Also definitely branch out to other sources/intuition/diagrams when the book just doesn't make any sense. In the end of the day, you're objective is to get the material and that's the goal to not lose sight of.

Tezzeract fucked around with this message at 18:12 on May 28, 2014

01011001
Dec 26, 2012

Lightanchor posted:

i'm permabanned poster numberstomper58. i first started studying common core when i was about 5. by 7 i got really obsessed with the concept of "algorithms" and tried to channel them constantly, until my thought process got really bizarre and i would repeat things like "math situation" and "hidden partners" in my head for hours, and i would get really paranoid, start seeing things in the corners of my eyes etc, basically prodromal schizophrenia. im now on antipsychotics. i always wondered what the kind of "algorithmic" style of common core was all about; i think it's the unconscious leaking in to the conscious, what jungian theory considered to be the cause of schizophrenic and schizotypal syptoms. i would advise all people who "get" common core to be careful because that likely means you have a predisposition to a mental illness. peace.

GhostStalker
Mar 26, 2010

Guys, find a woman who looks at you the way GhostStalker looks at every bald, obese, single 58 year old accountant from Tulsa who managed to win $4,000 by not wagering on a Final Jeopardy triple stumper.

Gulzin posted:

You are a representative case of over half of my math majors. I had the pleasure of teaching Abstract Algebra for the first time this year, and I had a student say they hate proofs because "in math there is only one right way to get the answer!". When asked where he learned that, he said he learned it in high-school. This is because our freshmen/high-school courses are about following a canned procedures, and major courses are about proofs (for which no canned procedure is going to help). Intro to proof in some form should be taught to everyone at some point (probably in HS Geometry). I hate that people typically do not get to see the coolest part of my field unless they already decided to be math majors.

Pure Mathematicians prove stuff. That is it. All the way down. Proofs are not easy, and they take a long time to be proficient at. If you like them, don't give up. If you hate them. then applied math is likely a better place for you. Although you had better get your Numerical Analysis and Differential Equations down if you plan to go the traditional applied math route. Alternately you could learn Operations Research or Statistics.

Also, they actually do put most of the field axioms in standard algebra texts (they explicitly mention commutativity, associativity, and distributivity). They also tell you that the reals is an integral domain without actually saying the words integral domain (kinda important if you want to solve (x+2)(x-1)=0 as x+2=0 or x-1=0). Most teachers just do not mention them, or do so once and then never again.

You can teach distribution without being axiomatic about it. Doing examples for kiddos is a good idea. Example: Multiply 53 by 34 using the standard algorithm. Now break up 34 as 30 + 4. Multiply 30 by 53, and 4 by 53. What should we do with these two numbers when we are done to get 53*34? Maybe draw simpler pictures with boxes "cube sticks" to give them the general idea.

Yeah, what I originally liked about math is that it was just numbers, and there was only one "correct" answer to a problem in most cases, and you just need to show how you arrived at that answer, instead of futzing around with interpretations of stuff like in the humanities. Never really fell out of that mindset until I hit Abstract Algebra, where both my professor and another I had previously in a Cryptography class emphasized that it was going to be pretty much proofs from here on out and that I would need to master them to do well in the class.

I learned real basic geometric proofs and how to formally structure them with columns, statements, and reasoning in my Geometry class in 8th grade and again in my Freshman year in high school, but that was around the time that New York State was de-emphasising formal proofs as a thing on geometry exams in favor of more graphing stuff, though you still needed to know how to prove triangles congruent and all that kinda stuff. Never really touched them again until Abstract Algebra, where the structure my professor used tended to be a lot less rigid, but required a lot more writing out of reasoning, or using proofs by contradiction, or proving both parts of an if/then statement via a contra-positive and stuff like that. I got the hang of it when examples were being done to explain theorems and stuff we covered, and I followed along relatively well when we were doing them together, enough so that I did decently on quizzes, but I just froze up in my final. And once I had gotten comfortable with that, I could apply some of what I learned into my Numerical Analysis stuff, but I couldn't internalize it fast enough and wound up getting lost soon after. Pretty much a lost cause for me this semester...

Apparently, my college has no difference between a Pure Math and an Applied Math degree, both are under the same BS in Mathematics. Probably going to do the Applied Math route though. I've gotten better at proofs, but sometimes I just can't work out how I'm supposed to be doing one given the time I have to do it and it all just falls apart on me.

I understand that the basics of the field axioms (commutativity, distributivity, associativity, identity, and inverses) are taught in algebra (and that's where I learned them, in 7th grade), they're just not presented as "the field axioms" but instead just as properties of the real number system. I had no definition of the term "field" until it was brought up near the end of my Abstract Algebra course. Of course, one of the first things done in my Numerical Analysis course was proving the existence of the real number system going just off of the field axioms, and then using that to prove the existence of the rationals, the integers, and the naturals, so I guess that was handy.

As for teaching things like double digit multiplication to kids using distribution, I can see how teaching like that to kids who currently don't understand how to do it with the algorithm could help them learn how to do it easier. Like I said, I had a Chinese mom who drilled me on these kinds of things to the point where the algorithm was second nature to me and I grasped the concept pretty quickly. Having to do it with "cube sticks" when I already get how to do it using the normal algorithm just sounds like it'd slow me (and pretty much everyone else in most math classes I've taken) down. I dunno, if a teacher sees that their kids get what they're doing using the old algorithm or using distribution to multiply, or whatever method, it would make sense to me that they could be given the option to skip the alternate method presented with Common Core here and move on to the next topic.

Tezzeract posted:

Oh hey, sup fellow Stuy grad. Read the Math Team comment and I immediately knew what school you were talking about.

Yeah higher level math classes can be brutal. Most people don't get the context of pure math (I know I didn't as an applied math undergrad) and will view proofs really rigidly. The best way to think like a pure mathematician is to put yourself in the shoes of someone like Cantor or Godel. You're seeing ideas/algorithms applied to novel situations that only exist in your head and you have to try to prove it to the mathematical community.

Developing intuition plays a huge part in grounding yourself in these types of proof classes. The very first thing to do is understand what you're trying to prove and have examples and counter-examples help you limit the search space. Or else you're just staring at the page going WTF because you have an 'infinite' search space (yes this is a fuzzy concept, maybe the better idea is combinatoric to the tools that you have to mash together to prove a concept.) Intuition 'grounds' the 'degrees of freedom' so you're not performing an insane exhaustive search.

For Abstract Algebra in college, the context is that you're working with regular algebra but generalized so you relax constraints (assumptions) and get new generalized results. So extra cases could come to mind and help you visualize what you're trying to solve.

For Real Analysis, I tried to 'brute force' the class and it was not pretty. Rudin is a hell of a book to learn from starting out. Also definitely branch out to other sources/intuition/diagrams when the book just doesn't make any sense. In the end of the day, you're objective is to get the material and that's the goal to not lose sight of.

:hfive: Sup. Class of 05, Freshman year began right as 9/11 happened, that was a hell of a year. Did you ever have Mr. Geller for Pre-Calc or Math Team. Man, when you got past an imposing facade and his hysterics when telling you to study before a test, he was a great teacher and I really learned a lot from him. RIP.

And yeah, I'm sticking with the math degree since I'm so close to graduating now. I'll keep plugging away at the Numerical Analysis, and maybe try taking Number Theory again now that I have a grounding in Abstract Algebra to help me out in that regard. While I did have problems with that class, I got through it and can basically understand where it's going for the most part and apply it to other things now.

Oh, and this was the textbook we were using for Numerical Analysis. It helped me understand some things, but I got lost after a chapter or two in. As I said though, I'm gonna keep plugging away at it and hopefully eventually understand what's going on there enough to get through the course.

Gulzin
Jan 3, 2004
A little gnome hasn't hurt anybody

GhostStalker posted:

I understand that the basics of the field axioms (commutativity, distributivity, associativity, identity, and inverses) are taught in algebra (and that's where I learned them, in 7th grade), they're just not presented as "the field axioms" but instead just as properties of the real number system. I had no definition of the term "field" until it was brought up near the end of my Abstract Algebra course. Of course, one of the first things done in my Numerical Analysis course was proving the existence of the real number system going just off of the field axioms, and then using that to prove the existence of the rationals, the integers, and the naturals, so I guess that was handy.

I think when I say we should teach them why things work, I should also say that I am not for just dumping some axioms on kids and having them Moore method math together. We can teach them properties of algebra without getting bogged down in notation. I think we need more proofs in K-12 mathematics, but they don't have to be overly rigorous at that point. Just getting students to realize there are reasons why everything in math is the way it is would be worlds better than what is going on right now.

GhostStalker posted:

Oh, and this was the textbook we were using for Numerical Analysis. It helped me understand some things, but I got lost after a chapter or two in. As I said though, I'm gonna keep plugging away at it and hopefully eventually understand what's going on there enough to get through the course.

Okay, when I said Numerical Analysis, I meant this. What you linked is Intro to Real Analysis, and it seems odd to me they would call that Numerical Analysis (as these subjects are clearly defined by the Mathematics Subject Classification).

If you were to go on as an applied mathematician or statistician, you should probably have a good grounding in Real Analysis too.

GhostStalker
Mar 26, 2010

Guys, find a woman who looks at you the way GhostStalker looks at every bald, obese, single 58 year old accountant from Tulsa who managed to win $4,000 by not wagering on a Final Jeopardy triple stumper.

Gulzin posted:

Okay, when I said Numerical Analysis, I meant this. What you linked is Intro to Real Analysis, and it seems odd to me they would call that Numerical Analysis (as these subjects are clearly defined by the Mathematics Subject Classification).

If you were to go on as an applied mathematician or statistician, you should probably have a good grounding in Real Analysis too.

Technically, the class according to the syllabus is called Advanced Calculus. I think I got mixed up with what to call what we were actually studying, since I've heard it being referred to as just a class on Analysis by my professor. Now I don't know what to make of it...

Gulzin
Jan 3, 2004
A little gnome hasn't hurt anybody

GhostStalker posted:

Technically, the class according to the syllabus is called Advanced Calculus. I think I got mixed up with what to call what we were actually studying, since I've heard it being referred to as just a class on Analysis by my professor. Now I don't know what to make of it...

Analysis is a general field that comprises topics like Real Analysis, Complex Analysis, and Functional Analysis.

Numerical Analysis is actually part of applied mathematics. It is the mathematics of approximation algorithms, typically for Linear Algebra and Differential Equations.

CAPT. Rainbowbeard
Apr 5, 2012

My incredible goodposting transcends time and space but still it cannot transform the xbone into a good console.
Lipstick Apathy

Keith Stone posted:

I won't claim to have read all 18 pages of this thread because, well....gawddamn.

I think one complaint to common core is what we run into here in Virginia. Virginia doesn't do Common Core because we have a similar system called Standards of Learning. The problem with SoL (poo poo outta luck) is that the SoLs dictate what is taught, no more and no less.

Teachers here in VA teach to the SoLs and after that they give up. You're not getting ahead, you're not learning new things. You get SoL and that's that. SoLs control funding and school accreditation. How your school performs on these tests is all anyone cares about. Little Johnny will be a poet but sucks at math? He's an idiot and threatens the well being of the rest of the school.

These sorts of educational standardization really does just produce standardization. Instead of this becoming the minimum acceptable level of educational performance it's the whole and complete target.

Yeah. My girlfriend teaches third grade for CPS, a big testing year. All management really care about is those tests and the resulting funding for third graders.

Third grade is a year the kids can Actually Fail and have to repeat.

Irradiation
Sep 14, 2005

I understand your frustration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRsPheErBj8

Xelkelvos
Dec 19, 2012
Frankly, rather than teaching proofs directly, kids might be more receptive to basic Symbolic Logic and then transitioning that into proofs.

Powerlurker
Oct 21, 2010

Gulzin posted:

The day I got my Ph.D. two people told me they hated math. Every time I meet someone new, they tell me they hate math once they learn what I do.

Is this your experience with Chemistry?

Less chemistry generally, and more people complaining about how organic chemistry made them reconsider their life choices/derailed their med school dreams/turned them into an English major.

Hesh Ballantine
Feb 13, 2012
I like the common core math stuff, it feels a lot like how I do math in my head, as others have said. But I also see a lot of "it's important to understand why math works." I don't necessarily agree. As a physics major I use a shitton of math and quite frankly, I don't particularly care why Green's Theorem (or it's 3D counterparts Divergence and Stokes') work, I only care what they can do for me and how to use them. I consider math like a toolbox. I don't care how a wrench was made or who invented it, I care that when I put the boxy end on a bolt and turn it, it tightens the bolt.

Gulzin
Jan 3, 2004
A little gnome hasn't hurt anybody

Hesh Ballantine posted:

I like the common core math stuff, it feels a lot like how I do math in my head, as others have said. But I also see a lot of "it's important to understand why math works." I don't necessarily agree. As a physics major I use a shitton of math and quite frankly, I don't particularly care why Green's Theorem (or it's 3D counterparts Divergence and Stokes') work, I only care what they can do for me and how to use them. I consider math like a toolbox. I don't care how a wrench was made or who invented it, I care that when I put the boxy end on a bolt and turn it, it tightens the bolt.

And physics is a tool of the engineers. And engineering is the tool of the plumber. We should all just be plumbers! It must not matter why physics works the way it does. I don't care how my wrench is made and all that bullshit.

Also, because most Physicists tend to think Math serves Physics. Most real math is used in jobs that have nothing to do with Physics (Financial Quants, Actuary, and Operations Research Analyst).

e: Also, if you are using a tool and you don't know how it works, you are a pretty lovely Physicist.

Gulzin fucked around with this message at 02:58 on May 31, 2014

Hesh Ballantine
Feb 13, 2012

Gulzin posted:

And physics is a tool of the engineers. And engineering is the tool of the plumber. We should all just be plumbers! It must not matter why physics works the way it does. I don't care how my wrench is made and all that bullshit.

Also, because most Physicists tend to think Math serves Physics. Most real math is used in jobs that have nothing to do with Physics (Financial Quants, Actuary, and Operations Research Analyst).

e: Also, if you are using a tool and you don't know how it works, you are a pretty lovely Physicist.

You're a little hostile about this and that's kind of cute. I'm not saying it doesn't matter, period. I'm saying that, for me at least, it's secondary to functionality and applicability. I've done plenty of "this is why it works" in multivariable calc and vector calc, and I think it's fair to argue that it helps (and may even be necessary) for learning how to apply mathematical methods. That said, once I clocked my A and sold the textbook, I stopped remembering or caring about any of the why. You say this makes me a lovely physicist, but I'd challenge you to find anyone in the field not directly involved in education that can, for example, demonstrate derivation of Gauss' law off the top of their heads.

As for all the "real math" careers you linked, congratulations on making high speed trading and other wonderful contributions to the sum of human knowledge possible, I guess?

Gulzin
Jan 3, 2004
A little gnome hasn't hurt anybody
I came off as hostile because you didn't say that you didn't care if you didn't understand it. You said:

Hesh Ballantine posted:

But I also see a lot of "it's important to understand why math works." I don't necessarily agree.

which is directly against the main benefit I see of common core.

Even if you never remembered a drat thing about math again, just because you wouldn't use it or care why it works is no reason to gently caress over our children's chance of seeing why it works. It would be me suggesting to stop all band programs in the country, because I stopped playing my instrument after high-school. You are suggesting policies that directly gently caress over the discipline I dedicated my life to.

A K-12 understanding of math does not mean they have to be able to instantly prove every theorem they learn, but they should spend more time learning why it works than just memorizing and using an algorithm. If you have good number sense, you do better in algebra. If you do better in algebra you do better in Calculus. I hope a physicist would understand why that would be important to their field.

Similarly, you don't have to prove Green's Theorem every time you use it, but you do understand it, and were likely enriched by the proof. You understand the physical ramifications, you understand when and how to use it. There are many theorems in my own research field of mathematics I would be pressed to prove off the top of my head. That is not a valid argument for never seeing the proofs, or just not teaching why math works to students.

Finally a surface level understanding of math causes poo poo like this.

gary oldmans diary
Sep 26, 2005
give a better example for the argument that common core teaches kids to understand math in ways they otherwise wouldnt than the current example of teaching them to count to and from 0/10 as an intermediary instead of straight to the number theyre going for

i gotta know there is more to it than more story problems number lines number statements and this
the common core algorithm for addition is not free from being an algorithm that could be plodded through by someone who didnt understand addition

its the core of your argument and this thread so lets just get to it

Gulzin
Jan 3, 2004
A little gnome hasn't hurt anybody

gary oldmans diary posted:

give a better example for the argument that common core teaches kids to understand math in ways they otherwise wouldnt than the current example of teaching them to count to and from 0/10 as an intermediary instead of straight to the number theyre going for

i gotta know there is more to it than more story problems number lines number statements and this
the common core algorithm for addition is not free from being an algorithm that could be plodded through by someone who didnt understand addition

its the core of your argument and this thread so lets just get to it

That is fair. Before I provide the two examples below. I do want to say that any part of high-school math could be boiled down to following algorithms, and you certainly could find an algorithm to do any the problems listed below.

So let me divorce the standards from their assessment exams. I am doing this because after talking to two of my math education colleagues about common core today, they informed me that they wholeheartedly support the standards (as they are basically repackaged NCTM standards), but there are states writing assessments against the spirit of the standards (they cited New York in specific). That is an issue, and one that is important to address. It is not an issue of the standards themselves.

Okay, so here are my two examples (one is against algorithmic learning, the other is how the standards improve general education):

Multiplication via multiple forms. the standards, some example worksheets.

Edit: To make the example clearer.

The standards posted:

CCSS.Math.Content.4.NBT.B.5
Multiply a whole number of up to four digits by a one-digit whole number, and multiply two two-digit numbers, using strategies based on place value and the properties of operations. Illustrate and explain the calculation by using equations, rectangular arrays, and/or area models.

Basic statistics in elementary school. the standards, some example worksheets.

Gulzin fucked around with this message at 04:26 on May 31, 2014

Gulzin
Jan 3, 2004
A little gnome hasn't hurt anybody
Quote =/= Edit, so here is my favorite common core image:

Gulzin fucked around with this message at 04:13 on May 31, 2014

Hellburger99
Jan 24, 2006

"I don't like that mooch...
or her pooch!
"

Akumu posted:

Everything in those images makes perfect sense, and if you can't understand it you're a god-damned idiot.

Fur20
Nov 14, 2007

すご▞い!
君は働か░い
フ▙▓ズなんだね!

Hellburger99
Jan 24, 2006

"I don't like that mooch...
or her pooch!
"

and stop naming kids any variety of "jaiden" for fucksake. Your lovely rear end names for kids is ruining this generation faster than your inability to understand math

Bleu
Jul 19, 2006

idk what was my actual favourite thing in this thread: 18 pages of grown-rear end adults saying 'well that's how i do math in MY head, seems okay', or that it took that many pages for an actual developmental psychologist to be posted instead of polemic or stories about how MY undergrads were the dumbest

it was actually my undergrads, they were the dumbest. this is probably related to why every goddamn idiot in this thread doesn't know jack poo poo about dev psych what a coincidence

edit: i guess my third thing is learning that in america even math class is loving partisan, that's probably the Most Hilarious Thing

Bleu fucked around with this message at 10:29 on May 31, 2014

Gulzin
Jan 3, 2004
A little gnome hasn't hurt anybody

Bleu posted:

idk what was my actual favourite thing in this thread: 18 pages of grown-rear end adults saying 'well that's how i do math in MY head, seems okay', or that it took that many pages for an actual developmental psychologist to be posted instead of polemic or stories about how MY undergrads were the dumbest

it was actually my undergrads, they were the dumbest. this is probably related to why every goddamn idiot in this thread doesn't know jack poo poo about dev psych what a coincidence

edit: i guess my third thing is learning that in america even math class is loving partisan, that's probably the Most Hilarious Thing

I agree development psychology is just as important in developing standards as mathematicians views. That does not mean my views are invalid. That is why I asked my math education colleagues about it. They are education researchers, not mathematicians. They are heavily rooted in cognition and educational psychology (which also includes a heavy amount of developmental psychology), but they are not research psychologists..

Also, I didn't just post that my undergraduates were dumber. I did link studies that show common core in general helps, and statistics showing that our students are not doing well (even our rich students).

I would welcome developmental psychologists views on mathematics in general. However psychological research into learning mathematics has not been a popular area of research for psychologists, and real research into mathematical cognition only started in the mid 1990s.

Edit: I did some research into what psychologists think of common core. Aside from crazy Glenn Beck blogs, I did find a large group of them really hate the K-3 standards. I also agree with what they are saying. However, I still support the 4-12 standards.

Gulzin fucked around with this message at 19:00 on May 31, 2014

Cabbages and Kings
Aug 25, 2004


Shall we be trotting home again?
when i need to multiply or substract some numbers, i just install an npm module and then fire up node on my smartphone. just like everyone else i know. jesus.

Dr. Video Games 0112
Jan 7, 2004

serious business

Gulzin posted:

Quote =/= Edit, so here is my favorite common core image:



lol What does any of this have to do with socialism?

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a hole-y ghost
May 10, 2010

top one was meant for a yakuza kid

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