+229 Sure, maybe you won't directly need partial fractions or conics in the future but math is extremely important. It's important because it opens up your mind. Math makes your analysis skills sharper. It develops your brain and allows you to think more logically. It'll definitely help you in many critical situations in life. So therefore, math shouldn't be taken for granted just because your future job doesn't require anything past arithmetic, amirite?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

This made me think of a recent xkcd: http://xkcd.com/1050/

by Anonymous 13 years ago

-quote HornyHornyHippo.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Plus, partial fractions is fun :)

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Not going to say Math is unimportant, but Math isn't the only thing that teaches you analytic and logic skills. There are other ways to do that too. If you're not good at math, you can still have sharp analytic and logic skills, simply because you trained your brain in a different way.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

By the time you're a senior in high school though you have a general idea of what you want to do with your life, and if that doesn't include math you shouldn't have to take it. I want to be a journalist, trig won't help me at all

by Anonymous 13 years ago

And what if you decide to switch careers? oh look, you're screwed there.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

that would be a MAJOR career and personality change though. I will never be involved with a job that need andvanced math, considering my back-up is kindergarten teacher. I 100% believe some people simply don't need some subjects after a certain point.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Math is just following some rules. Remember the rules and math is easy. It's like a game. Maddox sums it up pretty well... http://thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=math

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I've got to say, I hate math, but I just finished calculus ab (took the AP test yesterday), and I'm really glad I did. I absolutely hate the subject, but math can push you and/or make you think differently than any other subject. Calculus is something I will never use as an adult, but the skills I learned as I did calculus will forever help me.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I don't have problems with Math, I actually like doing complex 'finding X' problems. To me, the big issue is crazy math teachers who couldn't survive in actual society. Not all math teachers are like that, but all the ones I have are.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I've always hated any and everything beyond algebra, but I've completed all my course work involving math - the curriculum I'm using for my homeschooling only goes up to trig - and I'm glad I did. I'm not going to lie, I hate math, and I'm one of those people who's always been like, "When are we ever going to use this in life?" but I do recognize the importance of at least learning something, because you never know when it's going to come up later in life; when you might actually need to know something, even if it doesn't have anything to do with the career path you've chosen for yourself. Personally, I'm going to be a writer - journalist by day, author by night - and, in that line of work, knowing how to solve advanced math equations is not going to be as important as knowing how to spell and use grammar properly, but you never know, what if one day I decide to write a book that involves a character who's crazy in love with math and does problems out of their calc book for fun? In that scenario, learning it now would benefit me a lot more down the road. Granted, that's not a common problem people encounter, but my point is, you never really know when you'll need to know something.

by Anonymous 13 years ago