Why does everyone hate math instead of English? - >not science or math

[DavieJones714]

If you don't understand something or miss math lessons, it can be hard for some to fully catch up and seems to lead to a bad math experience. English is often interpretation and expression so less to miss, besides grammar rules.

 

[I Love Beef]

My problem was that Math was less applied and given more emphasis on "to learn for the sake of being learned".

English? You need to read and be able to understand language because you're going to be using it day in and day out of your waking life. Math? Unless it's arithmetic or related with counting, probability, algebra, and missing scores, I could not for the life of me find any reason to apply math to anything in life other than for basic shit like tallying up money and inventory. Unless I wanted to do something professional that was related with math, like programming and physics formulas, math in reality is a very limited subject to apply on the fly. Mathematics can be fun and rewarding to learn, but it is poorly taught and applied to learning in schools, and unless somehow math is required in everyday person society, not many people are mathminded or are taught to be mathminded. Those shitty questions in your homework will not help or inspire you.

Even then, becoming math mined I've heard is not exactly the sanest thing. I remember from a relative hearing about how a mathematician who was very good at math was a spastic barely contained eccentric who was calculating shit off the top of his head at everything he saw because he did that for the last decades of his life and eventually grew to see the entire world mathematically. The other professional mathematician who is highly regarded in the world at the moment is a speed addict.

 

[Shadfan666xxx000]

Math as a subject tends to leave people behind because every single concept builds from the previous one while English class just goes to a new story or something else related but not necessarily reliant to the past concept.
This means while you can just as easily bounce back in English or History class, math class can just plain ditch you if you fall back on a couple of subjects so you have to either work exceptionally hard to win back your place or you will end up having to accept mediocrity in the field.

 

[ArnoldPalmer]

Usually because the people who teach math don't fucking know how to do it, and "teach" it in a way that doesn't make any fucking sense. It's probably worse now with common core. Algebra was a grade 9 study for me and I didn't really understand it until after I graduated. Geometry? No problem. Delta math? No problem. Vector Calculus? No problem. All that shit clicked with me, and when it did, algebra eventually did, too. Unfortunately, my grades do not reflect this.

If I didn't learn to code, I would still hate math, because programming is what forced me to learn delta math, vector calc, and geometry. That is another problem with teaching math in a classroom. You throw numbers and letters and symbols at children all day, and other than handling money, not fucking ONCE do you ever show a real-world example of what's being taught.

My solution? Ditch common core and put at least 50 3D Printers in every geometry classroom, with a toolkit, machinist's protractor, digital calipers, and set squares for each. Have the kids build them from a kit in groups of two or three, over the course of two weeks to a month, and grade them on how mechanically accurate the printer is, and the quality of the resulting prints. The kids get a hands-on example of what math can accomplish, and they get a printed object as a sort of token that they got somewhere with that knowledge. Once the course is over, disassemble the printers and do it for the next group of kids.

This alone teaches you geometry, and inside that, teaches you cartesian/delta kinematic plotting, light mechanics, working in a group, a little bit of data entry, and a lot of basic secondary math.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

LOL I'm good at math, writing, and music...

 

[Pepsi-Cola]

English lends itself to things that people naturally find fun or interesting. Reading, writing, philosophy, history, etc.

There are basically no traditional hobbies that involve math. Unless you find writing income statements and recording accounting journals fun I guess.

 

[FuckedUp]

If you don't understand something or miss math lessons, it can be hard for some to fully catch up and seems to lead to a bad math experience. English is often interpretation and expression so less to miss, besides grammar rules.

Math as a subject tends to leave people behind because every single concept builds from the previous one while English class just goes to a new story or something else related but not necessarily reliant to the past concept.
This means while you can just as easily bounce back in English or History class, math class can just plain ditch you if you fall back on a couple of subjects so you have to either work exceptionally hard to win back your place or you will end up having to accept mediocrity in the field.

Yeah, makes sense. Just can't relate because I've always been good enough at math that I just had to read a textbook at most. Never actually paid attention in any math class because I either didn't have to or could learn the entire week or two from the textbook (latter mostly in college).

EDIT: Yes, I've previously bragged about coming up with the Fibonacci sequence by myself as a kid.

 

[Tumbo]

Math was always hard for me and at a certain point pretty much became impossible not to mention each lesson builds off each other so as others have said if you miss one it can be hard to catch up.

 

[Unassuming Local Guy]

English is something I use nearly every moment in every day. Without it, my life couldn't exist. Any math more complex than basic algebra has zero bearing on anything I do save for once a year at most. The same holds true for probably 95% of people in the English speaking world.

It's like asking why people tend to be more invested in the alphabet than hieroglyphics. If it's a thousand times more useful to almost everyone, it tends to get more attention.

 

[Ex Cummunicated Sasser HD]

For me, I couldn’t care less about maths, and never have, just because unless it’s university level maths, I have always been able to calculate large equations in my head quicker than most teachers could with a scientific calculator, and having to prove my working out as well as the correct answer was just a waste of time in my eyes. English, especially lit, you can come to whatever conclusion you want as long as you thoroughly explain why... I was lucky I finished school before the internet though, and everything was a lot more open ended... One example, I was supposed to study Macbeth for my A levels, but had moved schools, and I had studied that book the year before while all the rest of my class had not, so my english teacher said I could pick my own book if it was real literature, so I picked last exit to brooklyn and spent 6 months breaking it down and cross referencing it to traditional english literature...

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

Because math always has a correct answer, but English has a lot more leeway.

I mean you can't write an essay on how oppressed you are as a trans woman in math.

I had so many classmates sleep through the classes only to score top in anything non-STEM. In one way it's proof of how you need to be able to formulate yourself and your thoughts, the other it just proves that you're bad at working towards a goal as per math, and hope to coast through life on your genetic, charismatic make-up.

 

[haurchefant]

Math has to build on solid foundations and not only are these foundations not taught well, but teachers are unable to spend more time with students who are struggling which means sooner or later everyone gets left behind when they're outpaced by the material.

 

[bothiggedyhog]

isn't it a left/right brain thing? some people (cough women) are better with writing because it has general rules but is mostly about personal expression, and editing your work is easy with sites that spell/grammar check. you use english everyday, its in your head 24/7 so its easy to grasp for most people.

I've just never had a good hold on numbers, I didn't develop an interest because its a flat subject with very strict rules, and because I never had an initial interest I didn't bother learning much about math past high school required classes (which I cheated on successfully)

 

[Merried Senior Comic]

I hate math because I am a brainlet. I also hate English because, again, I am a brainlet.

 

[Elaine Benes]

The middle class is dying because people are skipping out on the trades. You do not need a mastery of algebra to be a tradesmen.

Eh, I'd say it depends on the trade. My dad is in the tool and die industry and he regularly uses algebra and trig in his work.

 

[the fall of man]

(dud3 1 fuck3n h8 3n8715=

 

[Dread First]

For me specifically, I suck at math because I never bothered putting in more effort than the bare minimum when I was in school. I never had to take more than one state exam in high school for math and I already passed the algebra one in 9th grade. In my senior year of high school, math and science were completely optional so I just skipped precal and physics entirely. That kinda fucked me over when I went to college, but that's a different story.

I also had amazing teachers for history, so I often found myself paying even more attention in Global, US History, Government, and Economics. My English teachers were also really creative with some of their units and so we never really found ourselves digging /that/ deep into state-mandated curriculum outside of what was required for the state exams.

 

[betterbullocks]

That's why I prefer math. English requires creativity, and judgement. Math is just grinding.

This entirely ceases to be the case past high school math. Sure, you might have to practice proofs, but only in the same way that you practice essay writing. Mechanical math an engineer makes. I've heard it said that the judge of a potential mathematician is how much they like geometry, not the ability to repeatedly and accurately solve a bunch of the same kinds of problems.

 

[betterbullocks]

This might be totally off base, but in my opinion it comes down to two things: how it's taught, and rigor. Rigor is obvious, math as a higher barrier to entry in terms of the correctness and completeness of a response, whereas the rigor required for english kicks in much later on.

Now for how it's taught. Math comes easily to me, but there are times when I will be genuinely confused and struggle. In 99% of these instances, it's because the math is being taught with a lack of motivation. Teachers and professors who assume you understand "where they're going," and churn out line after line until reaching the end will create hatred for math. The brighter kids will see this motivation without being told, and will come to love math. After a string of shitty professors or teachers, students often lose confidence in their mathematic abilities altogether, and their failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. But I firmly believe that anyone can be proficient with math to the point of not hating it, if a thoughtful tutor guides them through enough of the motivation. Not just motivation between steps of a problem, but motivation behind models. Why DO we use polar coordinates? Why DOES the unit circle have points where it does? Instead of memorizing the pythagorean theorem, learn that it's just a special case of the law of cosines. Instead of memorizing the quadractic equation, derive it. Motivationless memorization is responsible for almost all math hatred.

 

[Schinna]

I could bullshit my way through an English essay without too much trouble after just skimming through the book. This isn't really possible in math class. The English teacher cares more about you getting your essay to X page lengths rather the actual content of your writing. This is not the case with math, where there is an objectively correct answer and an objectively wrong answer. It is much harder to bullshit that.

There is also the problem of everyday usage of math. When I asked my teachers what a particular equation was useful for I never got a straight answer, and often no answer at all. The future use of English class is obvious. Being able to read and write without sounding like a retard is the most basic requirement in today's world. History was also obvious. Knowing about the past can inform you about the future. Most classes are like this. Most people, however, don't need to have much more than basic math memorized for everyday usage unless it is important to their profession. If they do need it but don't have it memorized, you have a computer in your pocket that can do equations without error literally billions of times faster than you can. It becomes insulting to a point, because both my teachers and my peers seemed to realize that this was ultimately useless past being a requirement in the curriculum. During my tutelage I spent thousands of hours in school doing math, and many more out of school. If you cannot provide me with even the most basic answer of what I am going to use something for yet still steal thousands of hours of my childhood to learn it I am going to hate it. It is even more insulting when you realize 95% of people will not use 95% of what they were taught.

Math class was also one of the leading causes of anxiety and feelings of inadequacy I saw. I could forget about English class if I wanted to and then spring right back in whenever I wanted. This is not the case with math. I had a surgery that kept me out of school for over a month at one time, and when I went back to English class I was up to speed on almost everything within a few days. I was totally lost in math class, and that has a snowball effect of lagging behind and being unable to catch up. After a while many people will just give up because they feel that they are stupid or unworthy unless they make special arrangements to catch up.

I personally didn't dislike math class as much as my fellow students, and I certainly don't dislike math itself (I actually find it rather cathartic) but to waste so much time on things most people won't utilize is one of the worst things you could have in an education system.