Math IRL
One of the biggest things that students hate about math is that it doesn't seem necessary. I don't think I made it a single day in high school without hearing someone complaining about math, specifically that they would never need to know the stuff they were learning after graduation. Even today, I hear people say that we should stop teaching higher level math classes in high school because it just isn't necessary for every student to know that stuff. Obviously, I strongly disagree. Perhaps I'm a bit biased seeing as I'm trying to be a high school math teacher. I'm the most obvious example of someone who uses the math they learned in high school in their everyday life. I also would argue strongly for keeping as many math classes in high school as possible so that I have a better shot at having a job. If we ignore my bias for a minute, we can look at reasons for why math should stay for the students' benefit and why they should stop complaining about it (t...