
Calculus Is So Last Century - Chinjut
http://www.wsj.com/articles/calculus-is-so-last-century-1457132991
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Chinjut
Not that it needs to be said, but I posted this to spark discussion, rather
than because I wholly agree or disagree with it. I personally think people
should just study what they want whenever they want to, and for many people
that will include neither calculus nor advanced statistics, and this is
perfectly fine. Of course, others will want to study one or the other or both
of those, at some point when they're young or maybe only developing an
interest in them when older or whatever, and that's perfectly fine too...

As for the idea, implicit in so much discussion of this sort, that the
workforce demands we all become data scientists... eh. It's not nearly true,
and if it were, what a sad world that would be.

Tl;dr: Calculus is great. But only for students who have some interest in it
or its uses. Down with mandatory calculus! And down with mandatory statistics
as well! Freedom!

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jkmcf
Without reading the article, but being familiar w/ the learn-what-you-want
movement, it's important to know how subjects are useful IRL. This is usually
where the teaching of mathematics fails students, after learning adding and
subtraction so you can make change.

Regardless of subject, there should be intro courses covering the
usefulness/benefits/pleasure of mankind's body of knowledge.

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Chinjut
Non-paywall link:
[http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ccy0r_9VAAIzNsq.png](http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ccy0r_9VAAIzNsq.png)

