I hated algebra and felt like it was totally useless. After finally slogging through that pointless class,
I never used it again,ever.
For me at least,statistics would have been a much better option to have been taught.
Who knows how many times I said the below to my mother? I lost count.
"But we don't need to learn what x and y is. When in life are we going to write on paper, 'X and y needs to be this?'"
I said the same thing, until one teacher finally got it through my head that "x" and "y" weren't important in and of themselves. They were abstractions that we could solve, a different way of looking at a problem until we figure out the solution. Whether you call it "x" and "y" or "a" and "b" or "xa" or "yb" didn't matter, it was the method of figuring out what they represent that was the key.
Thirty years later I probably couldn't solve a quadratic equation to save my life, but the larger lesson of abstract thought has stayed with me.
I hated algebra and felt like it was totally useless. After finally slogging through that pointless class, I never used it again,ever. For me at least,statistics would have been a much better option to have been taught. Who knows how many times I said the below to my mother? I lost count.
I said the same thing, until one teacher finally got it through my head that "x" and "y" weren't important in and of themselves. They were abstractions that we could solve, a different way of looking at a problem until we figure out the solution. Whether you call it "x" and "y" or "a" and "b" or "xa" or "yb" didn't matter, it was the method of figuring out what they represent that was the key.
Thirty years later I probably couldn't solve a quadratic equation to save my life, but the larger lesson of abstract thought has stayed with me.
Well your fortunate to have had a good teacher...For me,it was a monstrous waste of time and an enormous inducer of stress and pounding headaches.