What Secondary School Maths and Science Taught Me | INFJ Forum

What Secondary School Maths and Science Taught Me

invisible

invisible

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What 6 Years Of Secondary School Maths and Science Taught Me

Basic Operations
  • "Difference" is the name for the number that you get when you subtract one number from another
  • Long Division (I was excited when I learned this, but have now completely forgotten it)

Algebra
  • Doing a range of basic operations to discover the value of a pronumeral

Trigonometry
  • A way to find the unknown length of the side of a triangle

Quadratic Equations
  • Like algebra, but done in order to make graphs of curves that go on forever

Calculus
  • Like quadratic equations, but lets you find out the pattern of a shadow on a wall at a particular time of day

Statistics
  • A mean is the sum of a number of numbers divided by the number of numbers that are summed
  • A standard deviation is a certain proportional measurement away from the mean
  • Then you find out how a number of people in a population can be described in a certain way

Physics
  • It lets you find out the increase in force of a ball rolling down a hill

Chemistry
  • Everything is made up out of elements
  • Elements join together depending on their charges

Biology (Did this one right up until the end)
  • Some names of cell parts are parenchyma, mitochondria, and nucleus
  • There's a part of the cell known as "the powerhouse of the cell"
  • Animal cells, plant cells, and fungus cells all have different characteristics
  • Practical: dissecting a leaf with a scalpel and looking at it under a microscope and drawing it

General Skills
  • I can read literature under the table until my teacher tells me to stop
  • I am lazy and do not try hard enough
  • No matter how hard I try I will make stupid errors and not be able to understand what I did wrong
  • I will disappoint people with my failures
  • I will anger people with my failures
  • I will not comprehend reasonable, straightforward explanations
  • I am disorganised
  • I will fail
  • It is normal for me to get 5%
  • Topping the class in History, Art, or English is not good enough
  • I hide my failures
  • I cannot concentrate
  • I am a burden to my teachers
  • I am incompetent
  • My future is uncertain
 
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Reactions: PintoBean and hush
The only thing it taught me was how not to get gang-raped by adolescent teenagers.
 
I didn't do well in maths or science in school. Of course I passed, but it wasn't something that held my interest. Literature and Art classes in highschool were my favorite. My socialization skills were not fostered in that atmosphere and didn't really start developing till college. Highschool wasn't a complete waste of my time, but it would be nice for public schools to become more progressive like those expensive private schools and nurture your natural talents to help pave a way in the direction you want to go instead of generalizing education.
 
I was thinking about my mathematics teacher last night. I was wondering why she didn't tell anyone, "This is a bright student who has no interest or ability in my class, and needs to think carefully about preparing for a future career without mathematics." Or even just "This student is in trouble and we need to do something." I wonder whether she didn't do that because she didn't care, because she really believed maths was the center of the world, because she was looking forward to holding hands with the principal at lunch time, or because she was just a dreadful teacher. Probably a little bit of all those things.
 
invisible said:
I was thinking about my mathematics teacher last night. I was wondering why she didn't tell anyone, "This is a bright student who has no interest or ability in my class, and needs to think carefully about preparing for a future career without mathematics." Or even just "This student is in trouble and we need to do something." I wonder whether she didn't do that because she didn't care, because she really believed maths was the center of the world, because she was looking forward to holding hands with the principal at lunch time, or because she was just a dreadful teacher. Probably a little bit of all those things.
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Were you invisible in school? I was.
 
Is 6 years typical?
 
I "learned" meaning passed the class for stats and trig. I think if I understood what I could do with those (like I am learning now) I would have done a better job in life of making money.
 
Just to confirm: I was never raped. It was an exaggerated conclusion on what I like to call the British comprehensive system.
 
JJJA said:
Just to confirm: I was never raped. It was an exaggerated conclusion on what I like to call the British comprehensive system.
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I though you heard about someone being raped and learned how to avoid that situation. Glad it was only a joke. I did hear about a rape and a suicide at my high school. So you never know.
 
the said:
I "learned" meaning passed the class for stats and trig. I think if I understood what I could do with those (like I am learning now) I would have done a better job in life of making money.
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Yeah I think so. It's totally stupid that their idea of teaching students real world relevance is "do some calculations about your future child's ball rolling down a fucking hill, so you can run faster to catch it, or something." Imagine their surprise when it fails to interest students. "Maybe we need to show the ball in a colour illustration, especially on exam papers". I still don't know what we use physics for in society. Modeling car accidents? Obviously I'm displaying my profound ignorance. But it's not like anyone ever explained to me about statistics "This is really important because we use it to get people's medicines right. Now how about a career with big pharma?" It was more like "Statistics is about test scores." Awesome, test scores! I can learn more about how idiotic I am.
 
dang said:
I though you heard about someone being raped and learned how to avoid that situation. Glad it was only a joke. I did hear about a rape and a suicide at my high school. So you never know.
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invisible said:
Yeah I think so. It's totally stupid that their idea of teaching students real world relevance is "do some calculations about your future child's ball rolling down a fucking hill, so you can run faster to catch it, or something." Imagine their surprise when it fails to interest students. "Maybe we need to show the ball in a colour illustration, especially on exam papers". I still don't know what we use physics for in society. Modeling car accidents? Obviously I'm displaying my profound ignorance. But it's not like anyone ever explained to me about statistics "This is really important because we use it to get people's medicines right. Now how about a career with big pharma?" It was more like "Statistics is about test scores." Awesome, test scores! I can learn more about how idiotic I am.
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If someone had told me that statistics is about altering my data so that I appear better on a year end report and I get a raise, I may have paid attention.
 
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