Math education: It’s not about numbers, it’s about learning how to think

Re:Math education: It’s not about numbers, it’s about learni... by hinkley on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @06:00PM (#14748452)

Doesn't Randall xkcd assert that the paramount math problem that most people need to do is how to split the bill fairly when you take your friend out for their birthday?

If you're splitting the tip and the tax, and everyone is pitching in $3 to cover the Birthday Girl, that's more complicated than a lot of those problems they use that nobody cares about.

(In fact, I think if you put all of those math problems in terms of fairness, you'd get more kids to pay attention. Nobody wants to get cheated, and that's what happens when you're bad at math and/or finance).

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Re:Math education: It’s not about numbers, it’s about learni... by webmaven on Wednesday July 12, 2017 @12:04AM (#14750063)

> I think if you put all of those math problems in terms of fairness, you'd get more kids to pay attention. Nobody wants to get cheated

That's quite insightful! I can think of a few related approaches that could round it out, like frugality (eg. only buy the paint/bugspray/lumber/etc. you actually need for your project), and laziness (do the least amount of work possible that still gets the job done).

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Re:Math education: It’s not about numbers, it’s about learni... by pbhjpbhj on Wednesday July 12, 2017 @11:30AM (#14753382)

Possibly more important is why logically you're not wise to gamble, work out odds and compare them to every day occurrences.

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