Algebra 1
When am I ever going to use this?
An honest question or simply a statement of frustration and a declaration of the irrelevance with which math is viewed by high school students everywhere?
What you don't see adults in every walk of life factoring perfect trinomials, calculating the maximum of a second degree polynomial, solving for x, calculating the slope of a line given two points, or solving inequalities involving absolute values on a daily basis?
Um. Ok, probably not. There I said it. As an adult you will probably not use this math in your daily life. In fact, a good many of you will not be able to remember a single thing about high school algebra except that you didn't like it. (I know, I know, some of you are already addicted to math and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Just sit back and enjoy the adventure!)
If you do master this challenge called algebra, in the process
- you will learn to analyze new situations and in the process learn to adapt old solutions to solve new problems
- you will evaluate different strategies for solving a specific problem and estimate the effectiveness of each before you even begin to work the problem
- you will decide when a process is not getting you where you want to go and choose a new approach
- you will think in ways you would not have though, before mastering these algebra ideas
If you are willing to work hard, the study of math can teach you to think, reason and analyze in ways that you will use thought out your life. And then as an adult most of the time you will not even realize that you are using these algebra thinking skills.
So... Are you ready to get your feet wet?
