Do Kids Need Math? Do most people? No!!

Blog post by Tina Winterlik © 2012
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Whooohooo! This guy is AWESOME!! 

He makes soooooooooooooo MUCH sense. I have math story. Want to hear it?

I had a math teacher in Grade 8 that was not very good at his job. I fell behind and never could catch up. I managed to get thru Grade 10 Math but HATED it! I never wanted to take Math again. And so I didn't.

I took ART! I LOVED ART! I had great Art teachers in 8, 9, and 10...but 11 & 12, different story. And that's another story. But part of that story is because of the issues with Art I changed to photography. Anyways, I couldn't wait to graduate. I never wanted to go to school again.

When I graduated I went to work in labour. I worked on big production farms and in factories. Fast forward 10 years and I get tendonitis really bad working in a repetitive labour intensive job. I go back to school. I want to take Professional Photography, BUT I need MATH and not only that PHYSICS.

My Math is so old now I have to re-take grade 10 Math so I can take the grade 11 Math. Thankfully I had an awesome teacher, BUT I also had a boyfriend I was living with and everytime I got stuck on a problem he got me thru it and I could finish my homework. I got an A. But many of the other kids/adults did not. Some even failed.

Then I had to take the Grade 11 Math. I was so incredibly stressed, I needed this stupid course with quadratic equations so I could take my Photography course, it was what was standing in the way of my dream.

 I remember watching the teacher mark my paper and she was going over my mistakes and tears were falling and some landed on the page, and I couldn't help it and it was just awful.

Anyways I managed a B somehow, and while accomplishing this helped boost my ego a lot when I took the Business Math in the Photography program I sucked and barely passed. I am still not sure how I did it, but 2 other kids didn't. Mainly because they didn't go every single day, which I did.

The Physics was another battle and that I did thru correspondence. Yikes, Yuck!

Thankfully that's all behind me now. And you know what. I don't use any of it. 

 And I am a very good photographer and artist.

My girl is learning Math now. She had to go to public school recently because they were renovating our building and the noise was so bad that I had to send her for our sanity. She came home with Math headaches. It's CRAZY!!  Why are we doing this to kids? God didn't invent Math. You don't see bears and deers in the forest calculating and using math problems to figure things out.

 This speaker, John Bennett, is so RIGHT ON!! Stop teaching Math after age 10. Let kids learn cool brain games, there are lots on the internet and in boardgames and other places.

Analytical thinking makes sense. Having common sense and figuring out consequences that makes sense. Math makes no sense.  Even many mathematicians say that algebra is all imaginary.

It's unhealthy to stress child this way and at the same time stress there parents and everyone around them.

It's unhealthy to test children period, I believe. Anyways, I love this guy and I hope people wake up to this and stop teaching useless Math in school.

Instead teach them gardening. Teach them to grow food in raised bed gardens. How to compost and grow seeds and plants in popbottle greenhouses. Teach them about GMO and seedbanks. Teach them how to harvest the food, how to weigh it and measure it and how to cook with it.

Teach them how to pick it and pack it and sell it in a market. These are the skillls they need. This is the reality today.  You could also teach them how to build cob houses. That would be a super useful skill. A pratical skill. These are the skills and tools need today.

If a kid really wants Math fine. But don't force anyone to learn what they don't want and which they see no point in learning. Help them learn the tools they need to truly succeed and be happy in life.