[MATHEDCC] Re: "when are we going to use this?"

Michael_Nothnagel@lansing.cc.mi.us
Mon, 8 Nov 1999 17:27:43 -0500

I have given a similar answer to Ms. vos Savant to many of my students. I often
tell them that doing mathematics helps you to think logically and to take given
information and process it in such as way as to achieve a certain result --
something each one of us does every single day. I sometimes add that I really
don't know when (or if) they'll use a particular topic in "real life" because I
am not a psychic, and so I can't see where they'll be or what they'll be doing
in 2 years, let alone 20 minutes after class.

My other, perhaps more cynical and a little bit bitter, answer is "you're using
it in real life right now", as if math class falls outside the domain of "real
life".

Mike Nothnagel
Department of Math Skills
Lansing Community College
Lansing, MI
Michael_Nothnagel@lansing.cc.mi.us

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