That's exactly how I feel too. We have some really low performing math scores at my school, because the teachers don't teach them the logic and mathematical-based thinking behind it, so the kids aren't learning the material-- they're simply trying to memorize how to do it, and you can't do that with math.

For example, if I said, "Please foil (x+2)(x-3) for me," guys would know that I mean to multiply the term out, by order of first, outside, inside, last. When I was a math tutor last year, I helped out some of the younger students who unfortunately had one of our worst math teachers. When I told the girl she needed to "foil" the terms, she looked at me like I had two heads. Her teacher hadn't taught them any reason to what they were doing, she had just been pointing to each term and saying, "What is x times x?" and so on. And don't get me started on negative numbers.

Luckily for me, I took advanced math (I took Algebra 1 in the 8th grade) so I've had the only good math teacher in the school, save for my geometry class (that teacher was really good but made the class overly complicated) and my pre-calculus class (this teacher left after I had her, and while she was a good teacher, you don't always need to assign 30 problems of homework).
I've had the same math teacher for Algebra 2, AP Calculus AB, and AP Calculus BC (which is four semesters).

My teachers just had us memorize a series of formulas, then put our values into said formulas. So, this means I am not stupid on purpose?

Yeah, I think that's why I'm good at math and programming. You can't get by on just knowing how to do specific things, you need to know the pieces that fit together to do that and be able to rearrange them to do other things, like a big puzzle.

also, my Calculus teacher agrees with you. multiple times I've gotten the wrong answer on a problem but she gives me most of the points because I remembered what I was supposed to do, I just didn't apply it correctly. She grades mostly on our work instead of our answer, because focusing on the answer encourages cheating.

that depends. in some cases, memorizing formulas is what you need. did they tell you why you had to put each value where you did?

No. They just said do it this way. It was a "teach to the test" kind of scenario.




The effects of bath time are temporary. But what of the coming spring and all the shedding? Little white tufts of fluff rolling across the living room floor like tumble weed on the prairie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6dtsmTK274