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Why Math At School Is Useful
Words Amelia Nakimuli
All our lives we’ve sat down in classrooms wondering how Pythagoras Theorem was going to help us face life. Teachers have always taught us the how, of subjects but never the why. Molecular Bioengineering Masters graduate Amelia Nakimuli explains why maths is useful after all.
Maths has always made sense to me. As long as I focused there wasn’t any maths concept that could elude me. But upon being asked the question of ‘how are you finding maths and further maths at A-level’ during my bioengineering interview at Imperial College London, I remember saying ‘I don’t enjoy it anymore.’ I distinctly remember the faces of each interviewer creasing in confusion leading me to let out a playful smile and retract my statement. They proceeded to sweep it all under the rug and consider it the blubbering of a nervous teenager. But I meant my statement. I had always been in love with maths, mostly because it came easily to me. I thought of it as a repetition of an understanding, a lock and key situation. If I knew the mathematical concept (key) then I could find the solution to any problem (lock).
However, further maths was a beast of its own. And I remember that my breakup with maths all started with mathematical proof, proving how the concepts that I so loved came to be. Looking back I wondered if I had known the true importance of mathematical proof, how essential it is in everyday life especially as an engineer. Would I have been less frustrated every time I got an answer wrong? Would I have tried that much harder to break it down and understand instead of trying to memorise the steps, so I could get full marks on the exam question?
Maths is all around us, all the time. And I believe that if we all understood how it worked a bit better, then life would be easier. What if I used decision mathematics to make all the decisions in my life, I’d have probably broken up with that boyfriend sooner or taken my mortgage out at a different bank. The methods for teaching maths in a classroom are very archaic and lead to an apathy and distinct dislike for maths among many students. You hear many students say, ‘Maths isn’t for me or I hate Maths.’ When you get to the crux of the problem, it’s because they don’t understand it. It's confusing. Why is x a number? Why are the questions so long and boring? What's up with all the jargon? However I’ve found that if I sit with them for just 10 minutes, and explain it all to the finest detail and how they can use that concept in their everyday life, there’s a spark that lights up. And you hear ‘Maths is actually useful,’ a statement said with too much disbelief.
Our day to day adult life is filled with problem solving and decision making. There are a large number of mathematical concepts that could be applied to many problems we encounter. For example, if I’m getting a mortgage or credit card or loan, I need to know what interest rates are good for me and which I should steer clear of. I might sit down and vaguely remember something about compound and simple percentages. But I’m still going to call a friend or family member who I assume knows better than me in this area and take their advice without knowing if it’s good or not. And how painful and tedious it is to do your taxes. Most of us don’t have that problem, but the self employed and entrepreneurs amongst us know the struggle. If only you understood what it all meant, you wouldn’t have to risk taking bad advice from a friend, or calculating your taxes wrong, or skipping them altogether or spending so much money on an accountant.
In my opinion, taxes and credit card interest rates should be a part of the mathematics curriculum. What use is it to teach me how to find x if I don’t know what x is in my life? It seems quite pointless right. Schools need to radically change the way they teach mathematical concepts. Stop focusing on the how and start explaining the why which will get students excited to learn the how. In life I’ve found that if I have a motivating reason, then even if I’m not naturally gifted in an area, I’ll find a way to learn what I need to know. Maths can be a very powerful tool in our daily arsenal to fight and win through each day, it all just hinges on understanding. I believe that our schools can do a better job of helping us understand it and showing us how to use it. They just have to wake up and realise that times have changed and that the way they teach maths will make it irrelevant. And when something very relevant becomes irrelevant in our minds, it never ends well.