My Dear Fellow Academians…
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My dear fellow academians…
I’m getting tired of people devaluing the learning of mathematics. I may be a math professor by trade, but I’m a mom as a primary occupation. I STILL value my academic background. My education has altered the way that I think. I may not have used the Wronskian method in years in a practical application, but I am thrilled that I have a degree that required me to exercise that skill set.
Why is it weird that when I was swimming with my son and he asked me how much one must push down on a 20″ beach ball to keep it submerged, I told him the same amount of force to lift (4/3)pi (10 inches)^3 of water in the air? Why is it weird that I refer to the graph of f(x) = (2/3)^x when I discuss in a lactation class why one ought to nurse a baby instead of pumping to bottle feed? Why is it weird that when I discuss how I can save more money by buying smaller volumes and using a stack of coupons instead of buying in bulk, I describe the intersection of two linear functions? Why is it weird that when I sewed a purse with a geometrical print, I used the theorem that the diagonals of rhombi are perpendicular? Why are these weird? I’m a mom. I also happen to have an education. This is how it is relevant to my occupation.
Pick an occupation. Why do people wear an underdeveloped mathematical skill set as a badge of honor? I have heard so many times, “Oh I’m not good at math. That’s why I’m a ________________.” This also identifies math as a talent instead of a skill set. Why is math the mysterious academic subject with this distinction? That’s another issue entirely.
Honestly, I have NEVER needed to diagram a sentence outside of an academic setting, but I often use parallel sentence structure. I have only needed to spell C-Z-E-C-H-O-S-L-O-V-A-K-I-A once (I guess this makes twice) in my adult life, but I still value my sixth grade spelling class. I have not balanced a chemical equation (fun!) since I was fifteen, but I can discuss why I don’t want to feed my children high fructose corn syrup. I have not calculated mass and velocity, but I can describe to my children how to aim the bowling ball to recover a spare from a split (and describe why they are not allowed to cross the line in terms of the coefficient of friction). I have not recited the Bill of Rights since the eighth grade, but reference them often when discussing current events. I am a different person because of my education.
My point is that the who-really-uses-this-stuff-we-learn-in-school? argument is lame. Of course, you’re not going to have to dissect a frog at work today. This doesn’t mean that academic endeavors are useless. It’s not the individual activities that make a person educated; it is the essence of education that alters a person. To the people who say that they don’t use the education that took so many years to acquire, it’s a shame that you have wasted your time. An education assumes the fine tuning of the mind and drive for accomplishment. Otherwise, it’s a waste of ink on a résumé.
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