Taking Maths Lessons For 11 Years In Your Life, With No Choice, IMO Is Pointless.
I Think, If You Would WANT To Take Maths, Say If YOu Wanted To Be An Accountant Or Something Then Fine, Good For You. But For People That Don't, Why Do We Have To Sit Through The Worst Lessons Ever For No Reason. I Think That Maths Should Be Taken In Years 3-7.. (Around Age 5-12) But After That, It Should Be Optional. When In My Life Am I Going To Need To Know How To Find The Third Angle Of A Triangle? Or Triganometry!? It Really Should Be Optional!

(Secretly I Am Expecting Many People To Disagree With Me On This And Put It Should BE Compulsory...)

You may not see the use for math now, oh young one, but take it from someone who is MUCH older and wiser than you (not me, I am just passing along advice told to me by an old sage 8-) )

Math is a tool that is useful in every aspect of life, not just if you are a mathematician.

Are you going to be a scientist (like me)? An architect? A doctor? A lawyer? (You may need math to interpret and try evidence in court, or at the very least to calculate the incredible fees you charge your clients) An engineer? A computer scientist? An accountant? A businessman?

In short, if you do anything with your life, you WILL need math.

BTW, English is also a useful skill that is often overlooked. As our economy becomes more and more service-oriented, effective writing and speaking skills are essential in life.

I voted optional after 15, so say senior, or year 11 and 12 it should be optional. That's the way it was at my school, and I think it was a good system. I think by that time people would have learnt the basics and have an idea whether they are good at it, and are mature enough to choose whether they will need it for future study etc. It does annoy me when people complain about things you learn in school being useless - what would you learn instead, Beau? History? English? Woodwork? What exactly would you have them teach that is so much more useful than maths? I find it sad that people can't see the value of maths, and I think it's partially the way it's taught, just formulae and problems instead of giving the bigger picture and how formula are derived etc. But also I think many students are just too impatient and don't like school fullstop so can't see that maths is very useful and necessary knowledge to have.

Hmmm, I haven't taken the poll properly yet, but... Aelia, maybe it's the way you would better learn things to have the way a formula is derived explained to you, but personally, I don't care. What would have worked better for me would be for my teacher to show how this stuff was useful in real life, by showing for instance how a problem in trigonometry may help with calculating a flight plan for a pilot (ie, what angle would you have to fly to get to such-and-such airport if the winds are blowing from the northeast at such-and-such elevation, and calculate your airspeed given those winds, and if you leave at 2:00 p.m. what time would you arrive ---- and by the way, if you would like to get your pilot's license, even just for fun, that's the kind of thing you have to do, as well as calculating weights in the plane of luggage and passengers so the plane is properly balanced), or perhaps calculus is useful for architecture (though I doubt it) or engineering (more likely)... and so forth. I also hated maths, and though I got very good grades, I never truly understood what I was doing or why, I just got good at applying formulas. The logistics went over my head, and without any compelling, interesting reason to study it, I had no interest in truly understanding how the various types of math worked.

I'm going to be honest here. I hate math. I *hate* it with every ounce of my soul. (I weigh my soul in ounces) [img]smile.gif[/img] Still I don't think people should just not take it. It's true that you're probably not going to need all of it. I repeat do I care what the natural log of something is?
(AliCat unless you're going to be piloting the plane, would you actually care about the angle?)

You should still learn it though. There are quite a few jobs that require that you know difficult math. The one I want requires at the very least calculus. *sigh* So i'm taking that in college even though I hate it. I'll pass even if it kills me!
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Ah, RBF, but at least that would make doing the math more interesting and meaningful for me! Better than some dullbrain telling me "do this equation because I say so". At least for me, if I can see how the math is useful, I at least apply myself, instead of regarding it as even less fun than holding an electric fence wire. And I took calculus in both high school and calculus, but I haven't had a need for anything higher than algebra since junior high. So, like many others, I really don't much see the point of most of the higher maths... unless it interests you in a career.

If I had to do it, everyone else should too =)

But seriously... after the basics, I've not needed to use it much at all. Basic numeracy is important I think, but very few people will need algebra, trigonometry or calculus in their careers unless they take a profession which depends on mathematical skills.

I work in medecine (I'm not a doctor) and I can assure you, that just being able to count and do simple calculations is enough for skilled professions of certain types.

Is math really that bad?

Well, Considering I Want To Be A Musician/Actor Then:

Music: I Have 1 Lesson A Week
Drama: My School Is The Only School I Know Near Me Which Does Not Do ANY Drama. 0 Lessons A Week