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The three R's: Reading, 'Riting and Rider football

September 24, 2007

Either nobody read "Sound Off" on Sunday, or everybody agrees with my opinion.
I have a hard time believing either.

The "Sound Off" was from some Rider parent, who was pissed because the school has about as many football coaches on the payroll as it does math teachers.
My response was "So what?"
Who needs math?

It is great that schools teach kids a lot of different things, including how to work algebra problems.
But now that we have calculators and computers, who needs to do long division?

One of my co-workers said he uses his math skills when he grocery shop -- figuring out I guess which is the better deal -- buying Dr Pepper by the six-pack or 2-liter bottles.
My wife says she still uses math to balance a checkbook.

About the only time I would ever have need of math skills is mentally figuring percentages in a poker game.
Instead of trying to teach me about logarithms in high school, I wish they had taught me how to count cards.
A logarithm - whatever that is -- has never once helped me at the black jack table.
No slide rule ever made can tell you whether to hit or not hit 16.

I

Since I no longer have kids in school, I don't know what they are teaching these days, but I figure reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic or still have high priority.
The reading and writing help me pay the bills.
The arithmetic II really don't need anymore.

There is lots of stuff they make you take in school that will never do you any good later in life.
Like chemistry. I took a whole year of that crap and can't remember one time when I ever needed it.
I wish I had taken a year of auto mechanics.
And instead of plane geometry, I could have been taught sewing.
What good does it do you to know that the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides?
Pythagoras made a name for himself playing with his hypotenuse, but I would rather know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.

So to my friend who is bitchng about football getting more respect that math.
Any time you can get 12,000 people to show up to watch the Rider number sense team, then I'll listen to you.

Posted by at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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Comments

I totally agree with you Nick. To add on to your point, I think that many of the "core" classes they make you take in college before you get to your degree courses are just another way to get more money out of you.
You tell me when I will ever need to know the stuff I am learning in historical geology?

Posted by: Matt Ledesma | September 24, 2007 4:56 PM

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