WHAT a waste of time...???

Question

ok well i am 15 and personally i think doing things that you dont like are just a waist of time.

like great if you are good at maths then study it

but i know the direction i want to take in life and learning maths that has bearly any relevance to life when i should be out there living it.

why spend your life studying and preparing yourself for jobs when you arent really just accepting what is there already in this world without having to do things you absolutely hate.

and no i am not some lazy slob or anything

i love art and design and music and nature and maths really is nothing in compared to these things for me

my mum on the other hand disagrees with me and says all this stuff about building brain connections blah blah

there are many other ways to do that!

what do you think?

please be honest! =]

Answer 1

If anyone has taught you maths in a strictly utilitarian way, they have done you a huge disservice. To me, maths has a beauty of its own that is very similar to art and music and nature. Once you discover this connection, you will never hate it again.

There was a famous poem called "Euclid alone has looked on beauty bare" (Euclid being the inventor, or rather discoverer, of plane geometry). People may tell you maths is about numbers. No. Maths is about organic relationships, proportion, the so-called Golden Mean in nature, and above all, the imagination.

It is interesting what your mum says about building brain connections. I like her point of view that maths is worth studying for its own sake, not just for job usefulness, and she is right that maths is definitely a crossroads between analytical (left-brain) thought and creative (right-brain) experience.

I had a friend once who was working for James R. Newman while he was putting together his collection of articles for lay people called "The World of Mathematics"  (an outgrowth of his earlier book "Mathematics and the Imagination") The funny thing was she had always thought she was hopeless at maths, until she met this author. She said he had taught her a great lesson, that it isn't about being good at it, but rather about "getting it",   like a light bulb going on in your head.

Are you by any chance left-handed? So was Einstein, among many other geniuses in the fields of art, music and maths. It gives people an edge in making those connections your mum talks about. But me, I'm right-handed, and I was lucky enough to "get it" too. I hope you will as well, because it's a thrill.

Answer 2

Mom is right. Study hard. You might think you know what direction your life will take but theres no predicting really...especially from such a tender vantage point. If you love music you should know that reading music and math concepts are very much linked brainwise. The order and symmetry of design would be benefited by a knowledge of mathematics. And if you hope to save-the-world and help preserve nature a firm grounding in math and science is necessary.

Answer 3

I hated math.  I just wasn't the logical type.  I did find out that I needed it in many different types of jobs that I had.

History on the other hand, just plain sucks.  Stick with English, as you forgot spell check.  A real waste (not waist) of time is Art.  It doesn't pay well.  Do computers and management.  That seems to be where your generation is headed.

Answer 4

I think you need to stop making a fuss. Maths is vital in today's life.

Who's going to balance your budget for you?

How are you going to know if the bank gets your mortgage interest calculation wrong? Or if you are paying too much tax?

How are you going to figure out how much paint you need to decorate a room? Or how much underlay you'll need for your carpet? Even if you have no plans to do it yourself, you still need to know when you are being ripped off.

Maths doesn't have to be the most important thing in your life. But not knowing any certainly has the potential to make your life a lot less fun.

And adults don't insist kids learn maths because we are mean horrible people who want you to suffer. We insist you learn maths because we KNOW you will need it. We're not aliens from another planet. We are ex teens.