SO, I THINK MATH IS IMPORTANT

I was having a conversation as to why we, pure and innocent human beings, are required to sit through math classes from the moment we enter our education until approximately grade eleven. Why am I required to sit through hours of quadratics when in reality I will probably never use this knowledge again?

(Okay, well I’ll probably use it again because, well, architecture but you understand my point) 

Most people will never have to solve for ‘x’  or discover where the turning points of a polynomial are ever again. The answer to this question, is not in the equations themselves, but the problems.

 (What are you talking about? The equations are the problems and the problems are the equations! I know, I just did a math assignment, but that’s not what I’m getting at.) 

Math teaches us complex problem solving skills that we subconsciously utilize in every day situations. It develops our brains to be able to analyze a complicated problem, deduce only the necessary information, and then use tools that we have acquired and previous knowledge to find a solution or means to an end. 

It encourages asking for help and teamwork. I don’t know about everyone else, but there isn’t a class that goes by where we don’t ask each other for help and work together in order to enhance our individual strengths. This teamwork opens our minds to other possibilities and ways of thinking, and in the simplest form, it aids the understanding that there is more than one form of living, more than one form of achievement. 

Ultimately, I believe that these skills we are unknowingly acquiring through sitting in those hours of graphs and variables, aids in our ability to form ourselves The ability to problem solve and deduce information and an argument creates an independent strength in thought that contributes to who you are. The skills and practices gained from math are so applicable that the importance of the subject becomes one that isn’t within the numbers but is symbiotic with the humanities. One that creates skills that can eventually develop a global understanding that is crucial regardless of the path you decide to explore. 

Believe me, I appreciate how frustrating math can be yet I want to not only justify but emphasize how integral it is to our inevitable development. 

2017.