+155 High school mathematics is actually very interesting. It's only that you didn't pay attention. amirite?

by Anonymous 9 months ago

Is this a high school essay? Starting off with a quote? In all seriousness, I'm happy you enjoy it. I'm not a fan and find it boring. Either view point is ok.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

respectfully agreeing to disagree I like that 👍

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Idk, I agree with you in theory but I don't think you really reach that point in high school math? Like, even with a good teacher you're just largely learning fairly straightforward, not super interesting stuff. You don't exactly see mathematical beauty in algebra, and you only get a tiny glimpse of anything more than that in calculus. For me, math still isn't really my thing but I got to appreciate it a lot more in college while taking algorithms, discrete structures, having friends doing real analysis. Working proofs, diving into slightly more complex theorems than calculus fundamentals, is where the interesting stuff is imo.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I disagree maybe you didnt dive into the depths of high school math, it is very interesting definitely and I am yet to get to college math so idk bout that

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Diving into the depths of high school math isn't something that's often done in class, so I wouldn't count it as high school maths specifically. Everything you do in high school has whole fields of study attached to it that are a lot more in-depth and definitely not high school maths anymore - often not even college student maths, but "I studied this field for decades" maths. I'm glad you enjoy maths, I'm studying to be a maths teacher and there's definitely issues past interest that lead to students not liking maths - like bad instruction, lacking previous knowledge, boring teaching styles (doing the same problem 50 times in a row works, but everyone falls asleep).

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Your boredom might stem from lack of understanding though.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Are you in highschool lmao, that's not how things work.. people aren't interested in plenty that they understand

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Exactly I got an A in English grammar, but I found it incredibly boring

by Anonymous 10 months ago

well you didnt get an A+ soooo… /s

by Anonymous 10 months ago

No you're wrong. The philosophical beauty of grammar outshines even maths. Just concentrate!

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I completely understand what we're doing in my stats class, I'm still bored out of my mind every time we have it though

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Projection much?

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Or maybe it stems from the lack of interest or need to understand it

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Yeah. Not it. I understand mathematics just fine, for somebody who's been through calculus. I just don't like it and find it boring.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Or because its too easy

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I remember being in high school calculus and physics and it all clicking and being totally fascinated with the fact that you can mathematically explain everything. It was incredibly interesting to me then and still is to this day. I'm now a professional engineer or as my wife puts a professional nerd

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Yes!! I agree, I'm a data scientist now

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I had a really fantastic calculus teacher in high school. She made the class fun, prepped us thoroughly for the AP exam, and taught it in a way that made it make sense. Because calculus really does bring a lot of clarity to calculations you previously were told to just memorize. I ended up majoring in math in college in large part due to her.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I also chose to major in math in college because of my high school calculus teacher!

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I wish that would have happened to me. My dad, who was also an engineer, told me that calculus explained everything in the world. I rolled my eyes at the time but now I kind of wish I spoke a bit of that language.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Yeah that's dandy if you have a teacher who can explain why.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

My physics teacher and I would literally chat through this stuff for like a half hour every day after school. Me and like 4 other super curious and smart for our age kids would all soak up the knowledge this guy offered. No doubt if I never had him for physics in high school I wouldn't be nearly as interested in it as I am today. A good teacher makes all the difference.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Aced math, disagree. It is boring.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Aced math, disagree. It is fun.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Aced fun. Disagree. It's not math.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Am so bad at math the best teacher at school gave up on me, agree. Screw that thing

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Ya..... you definitely aced math. 🙄

by Anonymous 10 months ago

As we all know, people being good at something and getting bored of it is impossible!

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I did. Now I WFH making 6 figures. Roll your eyes more.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I paid attention and it was still boring, I studied and it was still boring, I got really good grades and it was still boring. Paying attention to something doesn't make it more interesting if it just isn't for you.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

you can get good grades in math without actually understanding what the hell it is about, what is the intuition behind each concept, why does it work the way it does etc

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Ok? It still isn't interesting. Why is it hard for you to accept that others don't cream their corduroys over math?

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Im saying once you do understand it you will naturally find it interesting but ok lets just leave it at that .

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Are you interested in writing? In poetry recital? If not do you think it's just because you didn't pay attention enough?

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I'm starting to want your lunch money, nerd

by Anonymous 10 months ago

How the hell could anyone get good grades without understanding what they're doing? If you mess up on one little thing the whole problem is wrong. So you need to be able to understand what's going on

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Final year, paid attention for the last 4 years. Still annoying and uninteresting. I dont wanna spend too much time on it, i hope ill just pass.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

High school math really isn't math. It's a bunch of rules for calculating stuff.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Orrrrrr different people enjoy different things. If you don't understand that, you have a lot of growing up to do.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I don't think it's THAT simple. My instinct here is that it's a mix between something innate (some kind of natural curiosity that we all share) and something socialised, like many things in this world. I mean, yeah, people are wildly different and all enjoy wildly different things, but MOST of us enjoy eating and mating I would assume. And watching a good movie! And even though we have different tastes in movies, I feel like the biological itches that get scratched are somewhat similar. Long story short: I do believe that some (or even a lot) of people who find mathematics boring may be able to enjoy it, if we find a way to tickle their brains the right way or introduce it in a different way. Whether we SHOULD be doing that or not is another question of course!

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Mathematics and eating are a bit different I reckon

by Anonymous 10 months ago

You sound really really pretentious... just so you know. Not everyone will like something.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I paid plenty of attention. I stayed after school many times to try to learn more, and I still struggled. Not everyone can be a mathematical genius like you. You just seem extremely pretentious.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

That might well be because of your teacher as opposed to not being a genius

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Trust me I am not a genius I am extremely dumb irl. Math doesnt require you to be a genius

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Pure math is boring and is very interesting

by Anonymous 10 months ago

you can say the exact same thing about everything in the world.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

or maybe just maybe math isn't for everyone and not everyone is gonna have the same interests as you math is so boring i'd rather watch paint dry t's that boring it leaves no room for creativity and is completely logical and it has like 15 steps before finally coming to a conclusion

by Anonymous 10 months ago

The "no room for creativity" thing isn't true at all, it's just that the teachers and curriculum are god awful.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Except it is though to an extent. Creativity isn't factual. People consider things like art and music to be creative because there's not a single solution or answer. You tell a group of people to paint a picture and they'll all come up with different things, none of them are right or wrong. You tell that same group of people to solve a math problem, then some will be right, and some will be wrong. You may have different ways of getting to the solution with math, but the final outcome is always the same.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

This is not really an accurate analogy, though. It's closer to asking a group of people to paint something specific, like a chair. They will all, decidedly, paint a picture of a chair. The outcome may differ stylistically, but they are all depicting the same idea of... a *chair*. In the same vein, ask another group of people to solve a math problem, and there are *lots* of ways to do so depending on the question. They could take an algebraic approach. A graphical approach. A numeric approach. Geometric. Deductive reasoning. Calculus-based. These will all lead to one singular "right answer", but just like the painters, there are stylistic differences in thinking. In what way is that *not* creative?

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I think you're misunderstanding what people mean by "there is creativity in math". They don't mean that the final product is creative (eg, x=7 or a\^2+b\^2=c\^2), what they mean is that the *approach* to the problem is creative. There's only one Pythagorean theorem, but there are 370 and counting ways to *prove* it. The creativity is in the way you do the problem, not the answer.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Making decisions on choosing a path isn't creativity. By that logic, deciding what fast food restaurant I want to go to is "creative" because there are a bunch of different ways to go about it. Creativity requires some form of expression.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Expression is very much there when we make choices, because it's the expression of our beliefs, values, and experiences that make us all different in the way we choose how to go about things. But in math it's not about what choice you make to prove something is true. There is no predefined list of choices on how to prove something. You have the full freedom and creativity to find your own way to prove things. The proofs for even the simplest questions in math have often required levels of creativity and bending of rules because there is no path to begin with. Math is beyond applying formulas, and in those echelons where you are examining objects in math and their properties, you need a lot of creativity to find patterns in what might not be obvious.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I think this dilutes the meaning of creativity. Because you are basically saying that making choices is "creative". Just living your life everyday is "creative". This is just a silly semantics argument to stretch the meaning of creativity so thin that it doesn't even mean anything anymore. Math isn't a creative thing, there isn't anything wrong with that and it's weird to try and pretend there is for no real reason.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

The problem is that to get to a point where you can get to express creativity in any meaningful way, it takes years of practice. Which is not a problem, but most are too undisciplined or uninterested to get there. Which is very sad.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

>it leaves no room for creativity This is exactly where mathematicians and teahcers have failed, they couldnt convey how much freedom and creativity math has. They made math into a rote learning religion where you just memorise the methods to solve questions and never question anything at all. math is full of creativity man I can 100% vouch for this in my own experience.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

skill issue

by Anonymous 10 months ago

OP asks the teacher if there is any homework for tonight.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

A LOT depends from the teacher

by Anonymous 10 months ago

High on Math, Absolutely ⚡

by Anonymous 10 months ago

>When you actually understand the concepts, you get a high and you start to appreciate the beauty of the intricacies of math, the high you get when you do math by actually understanding what the hell you are doing is unbelievable. I paid attention in math, didint understand most of it. Teacher didint help me understand it when I asked. The stuff I did understand didint give me a high, I still hated it. You just like math, and had a decent teacher.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I paid attention. I was ok at math when I tried, when I needed to. I still hate math, not just high school math, but middle school math as well.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Google dyscalculia, please.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Sadghuru is a charlatan

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Why are you quoting a con artist?

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I know right. Math actually the way mathematicians see and we laymen see is really different. It definitely must be a beautiful experience for them

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I agree. But it's not as simple as not paying attention. Most teachers suck at teaching things, especially because many of them have no direct relation to what they are actually teaching, so their method in teaching it sucks. Teaching is more than reading from a text book, and not everyone learns and relates to that information the same way.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

i totally agree. I think, if math was easy to understand, most people would be fascinated by it. But its not generally , and thats why most students find it so hard to grasp the concepts. Even good students who pay attention sometimes just know how to do it, and not understand the story behind it.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Exactly! You need to undsrstand the damn story behind it to really know what it is.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Yes, for me Maths was interesting till 10th grade. But once in college somehow lost interest and maybe due to lack of attention

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I paid a lot of attention, I was the typical student who did what I was told and put effort in even when I didn't want to. Almost never passed math. I was put in after school math classes, put in makeup math classes, at one point I had 3 math classes in my schedule: A regular math class, a makeup math class from the previous year I failed, and a math support class. I was good at pretty much every other class, put the same level of effort in to all the classes I was good at that I did math… Never got it. Same with my mom. For some people, it's just not for us, and that can make us find it boring and uninteresting when it straight up does not make sense. Shout out to my junior year math makeup teacher though. She actually helped me understand it.. until the pandemic started 😔

by Anonymous 10 months ago

No, it wasn't interesting at all to me. Thank you very much.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

To be fair, I have never once used the arithmetic taught to me in high school in my adult life.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

The biggest mistake you made in this is saying you, as in this will apply to everyone. I have the sane experience as you, I find it pretty interesting. My middle son has a great understanding of math, but doesn't find it interesting at all. You can't say that this is universal at all.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I agree, when I finally got a teacher that really nourished the way I took in information, and let me express that, I flourished. I *love* math. I'd go to after school math class, got 98% or above in all tests. Before that I had teachers that taught one standard way, and wouldn't budge, and I couldn't give a rats arse about math. It's really interesting when you pay attention.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I didn't do well in math until college. I only started to do well after I gave up on listening to my calc teacher and started to study mostly on my own using YouTube videos. Then I found a great tutor around my age and spent a lot of time learning math. It wasn't that I didn't pay attention during class but that I didn't spend enough time outside of class and that my teacher wasn't the best in some cases. Some of my math teachers were great. If you need to learn calc I would recommend patrickjmt videos.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

ADHD has entered the chat

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I was a great student who did well in math and paid attention. Math was still my least favorite class. It's not an attention or comprehension issue.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Definitely not.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

You could say this about absolutely any class. Maths is boring, sorry, not sorry.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

>It's actually very interesting. It's only that you didn't pay attention. Oh so people aren't allowed to have a different opinion from yours?

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Or... hear me out... everyone is different and what you think is interesting for them is boring wow !

by Anonymous 10 months ago

As someone who enjoys mathematics , I disagree. Only university level mathematics is actually really interesting.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I did really well in math and I had no problems understanding it, but I absolutely hated high school math for the most part. It was purely focused on preparing for tests, and our teachers would always say "you don't have to understand what you're doing, just remember what to do". I found late 19th and early 20th century poetry really interesting in high school while most of my class didn't. I understood it better than them, but that was because I found it interesting. We like different things.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

This is assuming that every person is interested in math, and that just doesn't make any sense. I hate it. It's boring to me, and I've never been good at it no matter how much studying and help I get. And if the person teaching you isn't interested, how the hell am I supposed to be? There are more factors than just your own attention span. Also adhd and didn't get diagnosed until I was 17.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I paid attention, I'm just too stupid to grasp more complex maths.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Very true! I've been 7 years out of school and im just now chasing a degree that is math heavy and MY GOD do i wish i paid attetion in HS but that moment when it just clicks and you fully understand it is beautiful! And once it clicks, the recall of it is almost instantaneous!

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Understanding something, finding it interesting and finding it enjoyable are completely different things. Was I happy understanding and solving different math areas -yes, I got a good grade and accomplished something. Am I glad it is over - 100% yes

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Def an unpopular opinion, nerd!! ;)

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Nah man. Just because you find something interesting doesn't mean you don't understand it. People like different things. That's it

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I feel like I would really like math if I had the right teacher I just struggle when I wonder why we do something and the teacher can't explain why

by Anonymous 10 months ago

No it's so boring to death Calculus is better Precalculus was okay Right now I'm in calculus 3

by Anonymous 10 months ago

If it had been interesting, I would have paid attention.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Can't the same thing be said about pretty much anything? Golf is a very fun sport to watch, you're just not paying attention

by Anonymous 10 months ago

hell no. High school math, mostly, is about learning how to use a tool but not what this tool is about or even know what this tool can all be used for.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I am 100% convinced that my problem was the way it was taught

by Anonymous 10 months ago

Unfortunately, you need a really strong base to get to the math (algebra, trig, etc..) that has fascinating real world implications, so many people are turned off by it, because developing that base takes a long time for a lot of people. And I get it, it is hard to get super interested in things that don't seem to have any practical application for many years. BUT, once someone does finally get into the math that has real world applications, it is interesting for sure.

by Anonymous 10 months ago

I'm still reeling from not being a good student I'm high school math. I'm in calc 2 now and I'm really feeling the effects of how weak my algebra skills are at times.

by Anonymous 10 months ago