Who cares about math anyway? What’s the point in learning how to prove a triangle is a triangle? Why do I have to take math if I don’t want to pursue a math-related job? These are common questions students have often thought to themselves. As someone who struggles with math, it’s often hard to understand the importance of it. This goes for any class for that matter, not just secluded to math. Jamie Sevasko, a junior, doesn’t plan on going into a math-related career and finds herself curious about why she is even required to learn it this far in her high school career.
“I don’t understand what job would use it other than like science,” Sevasko said. “I think basic algebra is important to understand but other than that, I don’t see a situation where I’m ever gonna use it.”
Schools want their students to be well-rounded individuals, which means participating in every subject is important. Alexandria Elder, a math teacher, isn’t trying to push her students to become the greatest mathematicians of all time; she is trying to push them to utilize problem-solving skills to take into the real world.
“In high school, you’re not meant to take the quadratic formula with you for the rest of your life,” Elder said. “You’re meant to get a brief tasting of all these different things to see what you’re good at. That way, post-high school, when you make your decision you know exactly where to hone your skills from there.”
Not everybody has a set career in mind, and even if someone does, it can quickly change. Keith Herberger, a social studies teacher, learned this when he was in college.
“I absolutely loved math and even took a few elective math classes in college,” Herberger said. “I thought about pursuing math as a teaching thing but decided not to. It’s really hard to predict how you might need math in the future. It’s better just to have the skills as a tool in your back pocket just in case.”
Some know what they want to do based on what they enjoyed in high school. Janell Byrd, a math teacher, figured out she enjoyed math and wanted to keep math as a big part of her life.
“For a lot of people, they don’t necessarily know what their interest is, until they’ve been experienced,” Byrd said. “I didn’t decide I wanted to be a math teacher until I was in high school because I just really fell in love with the content.”
Even if you never end up in a math-related job, math will appear in your life in various other forms. Home improvement projects, cooking, and budgeting are all parts of life that involve math.
“I used the Pythagorean Theorem over the summer. I built a deck in my backyard and needed to calculate the length,” Herberger said.
Even as a student, Sevasko is using her skills from math in the real world to understand financial ideas.
“My mom’s always been a big math person. So she taught me how to do discounts and calculate my prices. If there was something 40% off, she would make me calculate that and if I couldn’t do it, then I couldn’t get it,” Sevasko said.
The content we learn in school can be incredibly tricky and feel useless, especially when it feels like it can’t always be put into real-life situations. The way the content is set up is targeted toward preparation for standardized tests. Standardized tests like the ACT can help students get into college which is why we have to dive deep into the content we learn.
“If I could, I would remove standardized tests. Then I think the way that we do things would change a lot,” Byrd said.
Math isn’t changing any time soon though, so students have to learn how to make the best of their personal situation. Whether math is your strong suit or not, it’s still important to persevere.
“It’s a very divisive thing. That’s one of the reasons I wasn’t interested in teaching it. Math can just make some people miserable. They can work really hard and they’re just going to struggle. I do like the determination and persistence it teaches you though,” Herberger said.
Math isn’t always going to be easy or maybe for some, has never come easily. However, it teaches us important life lessons when we come out on the other side.
“I hope that you’ve gained some skills from there, like thinking critically, persevering through something challenging for you, and coming out on the other side, seeing the growth that you make,” Byrd said. “If we all just did things that were easy, we wouldn’t have a lot of cool experiences in life.”
