[Submitted] A Sine of the Times

[West Barack and East Obama]

[title] A Sine of the Times

[desc] Many students have complained that their compulsory maths classes, which teach topics such as calculus and trigonometry, are of no value to them.

[validity] has organised education

[option] "Take a look at my exam question! "If X is equal to the number of @@ANIMALPLURAL@@ in West @@CAPITAL@@ Nature Reserve, and the derivative of cos(x) is equal to the number of @@ANIMALPLURAL@@ in East @@CAPITAL@@ Nature Reserve, what colour is the @@ANIMAL@@?"" wails frustrated student @@RANDOMNAME@@. "All maths classes teach these days is gibberish aimed at confusing you, rather than teaching you. None of this is even going to matter to me, as I want to become a photographer, not a nerd stuck in a basement doing calculations for the rest of my life. Maths curricula should be reworked to teach basic mathematical skills that would be applicable to the majority of the population, such as filing taxes. All the other mumbo jumbo should be optional."

[effect] only those who apply can study applied maths

[option] "Actually, topics like calculus are vital to a student's education, even if they don't currently realise it!" interjects @@RANDOMNAME@@, a "cool" maths teacher. "Sure, the majority of the student population will never have to use the actual maths concepts in their occupations. But they will need problem solving skills and the ability to think outside the box, all of which are strengthened by learning advanced mathematics! Maybe if we revamped our teaching methods to make maths seem less boring and 'cringe' and more fun and 'based', students would have a greater appreciation of the subject and benefit from it more? I've got a couple of ideas about adding these 'meme' things kids love into the textbooks..."

[effect] the number of eyes rolled per maths lesson is increasing exponentially

[option] "Most students won't ever use these maths concepts? Well, sounds like we should change that." mutters philistinic engineer @@RANDOMNAME@@ as he furiously scrawls equations onto @@HIS@@ child's fingerpaint artwork. "Maybe if we stopped flushing money down the toilet by funding these artistic deadbeats and instead spent it on engineering-related industries, people would realise that scribbling isn't a productive way to contribute to society and will finally get off their butts to study hard and get proper jobs. That would stop all the complaining."

[effect] arts classes now teach children how to sketch the perfect sine curve

[title] A Sine of the Times

[desc] Many students have complained that their compulsory maths classes, which teach topics such as calculus and trigonometry, are of no value to them.

[validity] has organised education

[option] "Take a look at my exam question! "If X is equal to the number of @@ANIMALPLURAL@@ in West @@CAPITAL@@ Nature Reserve, and the derivative of cos(x) is equal to the number of @@ANIMALPLURAL@@ in East @@CAPITAL@@ Nature Reserve, what colour is the @@ANIMAL@@?"" wails frustrated student @@RANDOMNAME@@. "All maths classes teach these days is gibberish aimed at confusing you, rather than teaching you. And it's not even going to matter to me! I want to become a photographer, not a nerd stuck in a basement doing calculations for the rest of my life. Maths curricula should be reworked to teach basic mathematical skills that would be applicable to the majority of the population, such as filing taxes. All the other mumbo jumbo should be optional."

[effect] advanced maths classes teach children to memorise the times tables

[option] "Actually, topics like calculus are vital to a student's education, even if they don't currently realise it!" interjects @@RANDOMNAME@@, a "cool" maths teacher. "Sure, the majority of the student population will never have to use the actual maths concepts in their occupations. But they will need problem solving skills and the ability to think outside the box, all of which are strengthened by learning advanced mathematics! Maybe if we revamped our teaching methods to make maths seem less 'cringe' and more 'based', students would have a greater appreciation of the subject and benefit from it more? I've got a couple of suggestions involving these 'meme' things kids these days love..."

[effect] the amount of eyes rolled per maths lesson is increasing exponentially

[option] "Most students won't ever use these maths concepts? Well, sounds like we should change that." mutters philistinic engineer @@RANDOMNAME@@ as he furiously scrawls equations onto @@HIS@@ child's fingerpaint artwork. "Maybe if we stopped flushing money down the toilet by funding these artistic deadbeats and instead spent it on engineering-related industries, people would realise that scribbling isn't a productive way to contribute to society and will finally get off their butts to study hard and get proper jobs. That would stop all the complaining."

[effect] arts classes now teach children how to sketch the perfect sine curve

[Pacific Haven]

Option 1 makes no sense, and I know that's the point- but would a country really allow that in their exams? That would only work if, say, the validity was for countries with *very* low intelligence.

Option 1's effect could focus more on the 'maths that is useful in life', as I hardly see how the times tables would NOT be considered 'basic mathematical skills'. How about "children know the tax code by the age of 8"?

[West Barack and East Obama]

Option 1 makes no sense, and I know that's the point- but would a country really allow that in their exams? That would only work if, say, the validity was for countries with *very* low intelligence.

It's not that unrealistic in my opinion. You learn the basic stuff, then if you want more you can take the advanced stuff/specific courses. A lot of education works like that, so lowering the bar doesn't seem so out of question. And in any case, the availability of this option shouldn't be just for low intelligence nations. Choosing it would definitely lower it, but it's not a condition for the option to exist.

Option 1's effect could focus more on the 'maths that is useful in life', as I hardly see how the times tables would NOT be considered 'basic mathematical skills'. How about "children know the tax code by the age of 8"?

I'll make what I intended clearer.

[Pacific Haven]

A lot of education works like that,

I was referring to this.

"If X is equal to the number of @@ANIMALPLURAL@@ in West @@CAPITAL@@ Nature Reserve, and the derivative of cos(x) is equal to the number of @@ANIMALPLURAL@@ in East @@CAPITAL@@ Nature Reserve, what colour is the @@ANIMAL@@?""

To my knowledge no public or private education system has made a question so wrong as this one.

[West Barack and East Obama]

A lot of education works like that,

I was referring to this.

"If X is equal to the number of @@ANIMALPLURAL@@ in West @@CAPITAL@@ Nature Reserve, and the derivative of cos(x) is equal to the number of @@ANIMALPLURAL@@ in East @@CAPITAL@@ Nature Reserve, what colour is the @@ANIMAL@@?""

To my knowledge no public or private education system has made a question so wrong as this one.

Well, obviously no real world example would get it that wrong, as it's an exaggeration for comedic effect. (The specific part about finding the colour of the animal is a reference to a famous riddle about a hunter trying to evade a bear, so I'm not going to change that)

[Pacific Haven]

I was referring to this.


To my knowledge no public or private education system has made a question so wrong as this one.

Well, obviously no real world example would get it that wrong, as it's an exaggeration for comedic effect. (The specific part about finding the colour of the animal is a reference to a famous riddle about a hunter trying to evade a bear, so I'm not going to change that)

Fair enough. I was going to suggest putting it in the description ("Students complain about this specific question which is so wrong that it demands a response"), but then I realised that's pretty much the same thing, so nothing else to say. Tentative support.

[Verdant Haven]

- It may be a stylistic thing, but personally I feel like the sentence structure is a little stilted in places. Starting sentences with "and" or "but" isn't a strict no-no, by any means, but in many cases it can make writing feel a bit less like natural speech because of the pauses it implies. Just a thought – hardly make or break.

- The first and third options are pretty good. The first is a touch on the wordy side, but not too much.

- The middle option is the one I feel needs a bit of attention. The direction is solid, but the argument doesn't really make clear what the teacher wants to do. "Teach in a better way" is vague enough that it doesn't feel meaningful. "Cringe" and "based" might be used correctly here, but they aren't helpful for understanding or establishing a political directive.

- Kudos on the clever title.

- Effect line 1 doesn't strictly follow the option. The option says the classes should be optional – not that they should be dumbed down. In effect line 2 is solid and funny, it should just use the word "number" rather than "amount" (eyes can be counted). Effect line 3 looks good!

[West Barack and East Obama]

- It may be a stylistic thing, but personally I feel like the sentence structure is a little stilted in places. Starting sentences with "and" or "but" isn't a strict no-no, by any means, but in many cases it can make writing feel a bit less like natural speech because of the pauses it implies. Just a thought – hardly make or break.

Yeah, I think it's more of a style thing. I reworked the 'And' sentence in option one just in case, but the rest seems fine to me and if it's not that big of an issue I prefer to leave it as it is.

- The middle option is the one I feel needs a bit of attention. The direction is solid, but the argument doesn't really make clear what the teacher wants to do. "Teach in a better way" is vague enough that it doesn't feel meaningful. "Cringe" and "based" might be used correctly here, but they aren't helpful for understanding or establishing a political directive.

I made the teachers intentions clearer with the cringe and based sentence, and also reworked his suggestion a little less vague.

- Kudos on the clever title.

Thank you :D

- Effect line 1 doesn't strictly follow the option. The option says the classes should be optional – not that they should be dumbed down. In effect line 2 is solid and funny, it should just use the word "number" rather than "amount" (eyes can be counted). Effect line 3 looks good!

Changed and changed.

[Australian rePublic]

Option 3- okay, but there are still millions of professions which don't use advanced mathematics- taxi driver, courier, hotel receptionist, chef, etc.

[West Barack and East Obama]

Option 3- okay, but there are still millions of professions which don't use advanced mathematics- taxi driver, courier, hotel receptionist, chef, etc.

I couldn't have the speaker demand funding to be cut for literally everything except his own profession (it's not meant to be a crazy option), so I went for the one that would seem the most frivolous to the speaker, which would be the arts.

[West Barack and East Obama]

bump

[Australian rePublic]

Option 3- okay, but there are still millions of professions which don't use advanced mathematics- taxi driver, courier, hotel receptionist, chef, etc.

I couldn't have the speaker demand funding to be cut for literally everything except his own profession (it's not meant to be a crazy option), so I went for the one that would seem the most frivolous to the speaker, which would be the arts.

Yea, but then it's worded poorly

[West Barack and East Obama]

I couldn't have the speaker demand funding to be cut for literally everything except his own profession (it's not meant to be a crazy option), so I went for the one that would seem the most frivolous to the speaker, which would be the arts.

Yea, but then it's worded poorly

How?

[Australian rePublic]

Yea, but then it's worded poorly

How?

It suggests that only jobs which exist are engineering or the arts and that nothing else exists

[West Barack and East Obama]

bump

[West Barack and East Obama]

burp