Reading comes in handy a lot, also spelling and grammar – I do a lot of proofreading… basic math at the grocery store… If I think of anything else, I will add it.
ER (family friend)
My response:
When my son Brian was applying to colleges we would split up during a campus visit. He would go on the business school tour and I would head over to the Science buildings. I would seek out grad students and ask them what skills they needed their incoming freshmen to have to really succeed in science. Basic math (like order of operations) and the ability to write a coherent sentence were the two skills everyone agreed on. It wasn’t the ability to titrate or being able to do calculus.
More on English and Math (and Brian):
During his senior year, my son Brian said to me, “Dad, I’m not trying to offend you, but the only things we really need to learn in school are English and Math.”
He was always trying to bait me with things like this and thought I would go off on how studying science is also essential. I didn’t take the bait. English and Math are the tools of all the other disciplines out there. Brian wasn’t entirely wrong. Galileo Galilei wrote,
“The universe cannot be read until we have learnt the language and become familiar with the characters in which it is written. It is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word of it.” Il Sagiatorre (The Assayer) (1623)
(Did I just equate my son with Galileo!?)
So why is it that we require most students to learn mathematics up to calculus? Why should they have to learn the plays of Shakespeare? (Othello and Macbeth being the best. Don’t even try to argue with me about it.) Why learn about music or art? Why delve into the periodic table or learn about DNA? Do you remember what a mole is in chemistry*? The majority of high school students will not pursue any of these topics past the high school classroom. But that’s just it! They are high school students.
Students aren’t pursuing a career right now. If not exposed to a wide variety of options early, their later decisions will be limited. Doors of opportunity will close before the student even knew they existed. But learning a wide variety of topics doesn’t need to be thought of only as a cafeteria list for a job when you’re an adult.
But why do we have to learn calculus? I use a baseball analogy as my usual response to this type of question. Players next up to bat (on deck) will step outside the dugout to practice their swing. Many will add a small lead donut to the bat so it is harder to control. Swinging it with the weight in practice gives them greater control of the lighter bat when they are at home plate. They purposely make practice more difficult than play so as to be ready for anything when it matters. That is true with calculus and Shakespeare, too.
Learning things like higher level math or language will: make your brain stronger (literally), help you handle harder things as they arise, improve your understanding of the world, and build problem-solving skills, not just math or language skills, just to name a few.
The goal of a good calculus teacher should not be to have you memorize formulas, or for you to be able to just do problem after problem without context. It should allow a student to better describe, understand, and value dynamic systems. Things like rates of change (growth, speed, acceleration, …), or changing amounts, or any dynamic trend is better appreciated with calculus describing it. Understanding these concepts helps you make smarter decisions about the news, data, and most real-world issues. Having studied calculus, you are able to think more clearly, more logically, and I think, more creatively.
Why Shakespeare?! “The melody that enters by thine ear finds favor in my heart also.” What does this mean? I could have just said, “I like the music you’re playing.” I am not encouraging you to speak like the first line, but I am confident you were able to interpret it into the dull, mundane second statement.
Reading Macbeth is real work. To many native English speakers, it feels like it is in a foreign tongue. But after reading more, you get into that groove. You begin to make connections you initially never saw. You are learning comprehension.
I say that reading plays like Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet make all of us better at reading the instructions to set up your computer and printer, or to put an entertainment center together, or fix a snowblower. Each example has its own set of vocabulary and way of communicating steps. You can break things down better because you have seen things that should look familiar appear foreign.
Can you interpret this quote from Romeo and Juliet (Act III, Scene II)?
“Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus’ lodging! Such a wagoner
As Phaëton would whip you to the west
And bring in cloudy night immediately.” **
Did you go directly to the end note to get the translation? I bet that you could have figured it out if you remembered that Phoebus was the Greek god of the sun. Phaëton was his son who drove the chariot of the sun for his dad one day to epic failure. How would you know that? You were introduced to Greek Mythology sometime in your middle or high school years.
Could you do all right in this world without the knowledge of Shakespeare or mythology? Sure. You could also survive by eating boiled chicken and rice everyday. Having experienced writing like Shakespeare’s is the black pepper, the cinnamon, the nutmeg, or the paprika that makes things “taste” so much better. Countries were conquered to get these spices and here we are just offering up the intellectual spice of Shakespeare for free!
I have used calculus and Shakespeare as my examples, but there are so many more I could have used. In the English class realm, I could have used current authors from different cultures (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Homer, Lao She, …). Instead of calculus I could have used statistics or trigonometry as my example.
And what about History, the Arts, World Languages, and Science? All of them add to making a person a better decision maker, a more thoughtful conversationalist, and quite honestly- a more interesting person.
One of my favorite books is Dune by Frank Herbert (published 1965). I enjoyed the variety of characters, the intricacies of their stories, and the foreign/alien feel to this universe. I glossed over most of the strange terms they use in the book, concentrating on the general story. I wouldn’t have classified myself as a Dunatic yet, but I was close.
Something wonderful happened when I reread the book a few years later. I had learned more history in high school. I now saw that the spice was an analogy for oil. The book speaks of imperial exploitation of a native people, religion used as a tool of power, environmentalism, monocultures, and much more. I now saw these things because of what I learned in European and US History classes. This added a lot to the experience of a book I already enjoyed.
I taught Environmental Science for many years. I have to admit that it was by far the most self-serving thing I could do. My goal was to have a legion of informed voters aware of the real issues that exist from global climate change and the continued use of fossil fuels. I didn’t expect them to vote exactly like me. What I did want is for them to be more critical of the arguments they read, more informed about what some statements may say, or may leave out. My goal was to have a legion of informed voters that consider many aspects of a problem. They understand how facts can change through time (calculus skills) and can interpret the language used by people trying to sway their decisions (Shakespeare skills).
*A mole is an amount. A dozen is equal to 12 things and a mole is equal to 6.022 X 1023 things. It is the number of carbon atoms that add up to 12.0 g of carbon. Or the number of water molecules that make 18.02 g of water.
** “I can’t wait until tonight!” This quote is from Juliet. It occurs after they got married, but before the wedding night.
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