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 (though that part is a bit of a stretch).

Why should we keep teaching every student in high school math and why should they care? Because, right now, they're wrong! Even if they don't go on to be a math teacher, they will use what they learned in math class everyday of their life without even realizing it. In fact, I guarantee that every student will go on to need something from math class in their everyday life.

To start, let's look at some big things that I've done in the last 12 months and see if you've done anything I describe. By the end, almost everyone should realize that they've used something from their high school math classes in their everyday life.

• I had a job!

My job was marketed towards math majors, but ended up not involving any direct math application most of the time. Instead, it was mostly computer programing and analytics. The analytics involved looking at data, recognizing trends, and presenting the data in clear ways to showcase those trends. The programing involved writing programs to do that analytics for me. Most computer languages are logic based, and I learned a lot of logical reasoning from doing math problems.

If you also have a job somehow involving math, then you can stop reading. You are already a person who uses math in their everyday life.

"But what if my job really doesn't involve any math at all?"

I don't believe you. I think that if we broke down what you did for your job then we would fine some connection to something you learned or at least enhanced in a math class. Let's say, however, I do believe you and you aren't doing anything involving math. Do you care at all about how much you get paid to work? How about how much of your salary you pay in taxes? Let's say you make $15 per hour. How much money do take home from an 8 hour shift? How many hours do you need to work to be able to afford that thing you've been saving up for? These are some pretty simple and common calculations that most people do in their head. They are questions and answers that are so second-nature to us that we don't always realize that we are doing math to figure it out.

If you've asked yourself similar questions, then stop here. You've done basic algebra like you were taught in high school in your real life.

• I bought a car!

Perhaps you don't have a job. Maybe your partner works or you live with your parents or have some type of lifestyle that affords you the ability to not have to work.

Do you drive? If so, did you buy your car? I did. To do so, I did a lot of research first too. What was I looking for in a car and what car could I buy to get everything I wanted for the best price. Did you catch that? Math. I was reasoning through car options using math. Are heated seats really worth that much to me? I'll give up those to save some money so I don't feel bad spending extra money on having cruise control.

Also, I financed my car. I didn't have tens of thousands of dollars to drop all at once for a car. So, I looked at pricing options for new vs. used cars, older vs. newer models, basic vs. premium models, etc. Once I found one that seemed reasonable, I had to consider the loan I was getting to pay for it. How much money could I afford to put down up front? What payment plan (including interest rate and number of years over which to pay it off) worked best for me? That's all math.

"I have a car, but I didn't buy it myself"

Gas. Do you pay for gas? I've got a 25 gallon tank and gas is $2.50 per gallon. How much money do I need to put on the pump to fill my car up from empty? That's all math too.

"I don't have a car at all"

How do you get around? Does someone pick you up, do you use public transportation, do you walk/bike, or something else? I hate to break it to you, you haven't yet gotten away from using math.

Average walking speed is about 3 miles an hour (maybe?). How long will it take to walk to your destination? Given that, what time do you have to leave to make it there on time? Math.

• I rented an apartment!

Maybe you don't have a job and you don't ever travel anywhere. Fine. You've gotta live somewhere then. I live in an apartment. I didn't just choose any ole apartment. I spent a solid week online looking up all valid options and making a spreadsheet. One of the things I was most concerned about was how much rent would cost me. Would you want to spend $700 per month or $500 per month on an otherwise equivalent apartment? I'm guessing $500 because (from math!!) you understand that 500<700.

• I shopped!

Maybe you don't have a job and never leave the house (which you don't have to pay for). You must do something all day. Perhaps online shopping? If you are spending money then you are probably using some math skills. Why is everyone so excited about this 70% off sale? Can I afford this item? Is this worth the money they are asking for? That all takes some kind of mathematical reasoning to figure out.

If you aren't into online shopping, you might at least buy groceries so that you can eat at some point. That kind of shopping counts. What size cereal should I buy? The small box is $6 and the big box is twice as much cereal for $9. What is the better deal? You wouldn't know if you didn't have any knowledge of math.

• I cooked!

Maybe you get groceries delivered all for free, so you don't shop. Once you have your groceries though, you need to cook them. Following recipes, measuring out ingredients, breaking full meals into equal servings for multiple people... most things in the kitchen involve math.

Now, I understand that the examples above point out a lot of trivial math. Most of it we probably learned before high school or could have picked it up on our own as necessary, but it isn't just trivial math that gets used everyday.

• If you are building something, you need to know about measuring lengths, measuring angles, finding area, etc. Otherwise you won't know how much material to buy, you'll waste material by messing up and having to redo something, or maybe even have to completely restart a project because you made something the wrong size. This means that construction can involve math anywhere from addition to solving quadratic equations.
• If you are trying to lose weight then you might consider counting calories. This includes finding the calories in a serving of food knowing, on average, the number of calories in a certain amount of all the ingredients you used. You also might want to calculate your BMI or something. That calculation involves algebra.
• Planting a garden also involves higher level math. If you want to figure out how much soil you need to fill a planter box, you'll have to know how to find the volume of the box. Or maybe you have a set amount of soil and you want to figure out the most efficient way of building your planter, especially if you are building on a rooftop or in an apartment and have to consider the weight of the soil.
• Still in high school? Maybe it takes you 2 minutes to read a page of whatever novel you need to read for english class. You can use algebra to figure out the latest possible time you can procrastinate your reading to in order to still finish it on time for class. Or perhaps you've put the entire book off until the last minute and now you have a report due tomorrow. How much of your night do you need to set aside in order to read the entire book?

Ultimately, however, it isn't actually about the specific math problems that you solve in your everyday life. What math classes really teach you is logical reasoning and problem solving. All of the word problems you did in math class helped you to hone your critical thinking skills. You can now assess a situation, pick out important information and disregard useless information, and solve the problem. This also means that you are better at paying attention to details and analyzing a variety of situations.

People think that high school math isn't important because they don't see themselves using it in their life after that class. If we could get away from teaching specific examples of math and stress more the importance of general problem solving and critical thinking skills, this might be less of an issue for teachers to deal with.