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Mild take we place way, way, way too much emphasis on calculus in high school and college. It's purely a vocational skill, it doesn't teach mathematical mindsets (unlike logic or geometry) and it doesn't equip us to be responsible citizens (unlike statistics)

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GeePaw Hill

@GeePawHill

· Aug 25

A friend told a funny about an essay assignment: "how I am going to use calculus in real life". I have been a computer geek for 40+ years, and I have used calculus many times: by quickly recognizing what problems are gonna need calculus, I can find something else to work on.

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Hillel

@hillelogram

Aug 25

I bucket calculus into the same category as programming classes and machine shop— a great class to take if you're aiming for a relevant career, otherwise fun but purely elective

Keith Braithwaite

@keithb_b

Aug 25

Too much emphasis on it, yes. But for those not aiming for a STEM career I’d like to see it taught in the same way we’d teach $GREATPOET and $ARTMOVEMENT and so on, not a tool you’ll never use—that’s pointless—but as part of one’s grounding in what people are, and are capable of.

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I wish this about computing too! I was really sad when I started a degree in CS after making it part-way through art school, and saw that there was no teaching of the history and context of the technical things being taught. That background so important on so many levels!

11:19 AM · Aug 25, 2022Twitter Web App

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I learned about it on my own, because it interested me, and art school had taught be the importance of knowing history, and learning from the past, but the coursework (at my institution at least) seemed to only offer a very limited view of how things got to how they are now.