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Re:San Francisco schools banned kids from taking algebra in ... by danielvaughn on Thursday March 30, 2023 @11:12PM (#35382025)
Same. I feel robbed of something that could have radically changed my life. I’ve always suspected that I could have had an aptitude for math, but was too young to be able to articulate it. I just knew that something was wrong with how it was being taught.

It’s a bit late for me now at 38, or at least it feels that way. I never took college math so HS-level algebra and geometry is my current level of understanding and sometimes it really hampers my programming ability.

Re:San Francisco schools banned kids from taking algebra in ... by anonymouskimmer on Thursday March 30, 2023 @11:28PM (#35382139)
If you find it too tedious to self-study on your own (there are books for this purpose), then you can consider taking a trig or calc course at a local community college. Just think of it as a temporary hobby.
Re:San Francisco schools banned kids from taking algebra in ... by daniel_rh on Thursday March 30, 2023 @11:45PM (#35382273)
Or go for one of these gamified math tutorials.

For instance: this one teaches geometric proofs without mentioning the formalism, just letting you "unlock" the tools from a few "axiom" starter tools.

https://www.euclidea.xyz/

Re:San Francisco schools banned kids from taking algebra in ... by sanctified384 on Thursday March 30, 2023 @11:55PM (#35382359)
Wtf this is awesome! This should be better publicized. Thank you!!
Re:San Francisco schools banned kids from taking algebra in ... by dxbydt on Friday March 31, 2023 @01:48PM (#35390557)
This is very nicely done. I run a training group and I will use this for my students. Thank you for posting this resource.
Re:San Francisco schools banned kids from taking algebra in ... by pknomad on Friday March 31, 2023 @01:03AM (#35382803)
I feel for you.

I stopped after discrete math and analysis-lite class but I wish I took more algorithm and higher level math classes to be better at my craft. It's also hard to take classes when you have competing priorities when you're 30+. I don't know your current situation but I feel like you can totally do it since you have renewed determination for learning.

Re:San Francisco schools banned kids from taking algebra in ... by Dalewyn on Friday March 31, 2023 @03:41AM (#35383917)
I consider the whole math educational curriculum a waste of time because no math teacher or textbook ever taught me WTF math is supposed to mean. There was an absolute lack of context to basically everything beyond very basic arithmetic, and I ended up hating math.

It was only when I got into programming and it taught me math is actually much more than just meaningless letters and numbers that I finally came around to appreciating it. Programming taught me math is the language spoken by the universe, anything in this universe could be explained with math and it was truly a mindblowing paradigm shift.

Math education needs a complete redo from the ground up, it teaches nothing of value and only serves to mass-produce math-haters to the detriment of us all.