Posted on 02/11/2025 4:13:51 AM PST by MtnClimber
Unless young students learn the predicate mathematics for calculus, our nation will grind to a halt.
While Democrats focus on the liberal arts, which train students to be leftist activists beginning in grade school, it is the STEM studies that keep America functioning. As students ascend that ladder of mathematical logic, calculus becomes central to their ability to maintain our systems and invent new ones. Sadly, though, our schools are failing students, not just in teaching calculus but in teaching everything preceding calculus.
It is widely recognized among today’s undergraduates that the STEM field is at once among the most rewarding and the most challenging, promising well-compensated employment in the future while also demanding devotion and consistent concentration in the present.
A principal source of the demanding nature of the STEM curriculum is its solid mathematical core, the centerpiece of which is calculus, a cause of both delight and frustration for generations of college students.
Calculus, the mathematical analysis of change of continuous functions, was invented in the late 17th century by both Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, who were working independently of each other. Because Newton’s notational system was awkward and inconvenient, whereas the Leibniz notational system was intuitively appealing and easy to use, it is the Leibniz notation system that is in use today.
Because of the hierarchical structure of the topics in STEM, in which mathematics explains computer science and physics, physics explains chemistry, and chemistry explains biology, calculus finds itself cast in the role of the gatekeeper to STEM. And with that gatekeeper role in mind it would be highly illuminating to be a mouse in the corner of the first quarter college calculus classroom as the professor brings the daily class to a close.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I remember my early Calculus days in college early 80s. My problem was I could do the math, but I never really understood what it meant.
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This is why I enjoyed geometry, trigonometry, statics/dynamics. Even though I never really had much opportunity to use those regularly in real live, at least I could see when learning it why it could be useful.
Many decades later, I still have no idea when or where I will ever need to use a quadratic equation
Unless one is going into an engineering field, I don’t see the need for calculus.
😂
I had a interesting Calculus teacher—great sense of humor which helped since the topic could get kinda boring.
He said his goal was to teach us how to calculate the area inside various wine glasses.
See post 25.
:-)
Probably why I ended up in Navy. But I did learn how to operate a nuclear reactor so guess it worked out.
Great post—that was me.
I did number crunching before spreadsheets and after—and omg what a difference...
God is a Civil Engineer. Consider genitals; Who else would design a sewer line running right down the middle of the playground?
Start requiring them to do a math problem every time they want to use their phones.
Differential Equations (diffEQ) was a pain in the ass.
calculus is a mind filter
I’m a professional engineer with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical/electrical engineering and have been working as such for 59 years. I have used Calculus regularly the entire time.
Unless one is going into an engineering field, I don’t see the need for calculus
++++++++++
Many on this thread have correctly opined that calculus is not used when one enters into the actual day to day of engineering work. I am convinced the purpose of calculus was two fold:
- Proves that you are teachable and can learn
- Weed out those that are not teachable and can not learn
“In 2023, a total of 273,987 students took the AP Calculus AB exam, and 58% of test-takers scored a 3, 4, or a 5. Over the past four years (2020-2023), this percentage has averaged around 56.4%. That’s an encouraging success rate, considering how challenging AP Calc AB can be.”
https://collegeprep.uworld.com/ap-calculus-ab/scores-and-calculator/
About 22% got a 5. That’s ~55,000 American students entering college already knowing calculus fairly well.
“Indiana high school student Felix Zhang became the 1st person in the world to get a perfect score on the AP calculus AB exam.”
via Luxxle
Well, I guess that includes me. Maybe that's why I fit in so well here.....
lol
Teach the beginnings of Calculus in High School. Identify folks with an affinity for higher math. Choices and persuasion can then be introduced.
Some folks don’t/can’t/won’t ever be in that group. It’s what it is.
Can you freehand draw a near perfect circle?
Cook a med-rare steak?
Grow ginger?
Calm an agitated dog?
Stager shingle a roof?
Sell anything?
Folks have all kinds of skills.
Let folks discover their own talents and passions.
Math is crucial to developing a good “BS Meter”, no wonder so many believe what politicians tell them.
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