Frazz by Jef Mallett for March 31, 2015

So, so, so terribly relevant. The student has become the master.

I’m good up to the middle of seventh grade math……Than I get lost

As if he’s even making sense. Lame.

Nab. It’s not their fault that they prepared you for a better job.

It isn’t yesteryear’s long division. It still works today. The technique isn’t what is important, the concept is, but practicing the technique helps reinforce the concept. Although she should learn today’s technology also. Recently got a book about calculus in everyday life; haven’t started it yet so can’t comment on if it is any good. But it is certainly all around us, even if we don’t understand it. (After all, that is why it had to be invented.)

Both engineering and data analysis can use calculus. But they don’t have to. Personally, I like trig and algebra so much better I don’t mind – I always try to argue both are so useful apart from employment, everyone can benefit. Stats, too. Probability is useful as well, but it benefits me if not everyone understands it :p

But some of the most basic tenets of calculus are actually incredibly useful as a fallback knowledge in all kinds of careers. The advanced stuff is good for niche computer work, niche lawyering/finance, astronomy, some physics, and certain types of modelling :p (Am I missing anything?)

The unfortunate issuereally is that “cloud” technology is not currently particularly CONVENIENT for use in many education applications. Sure, it IS available, and it IS of course “trendy”. But educators have a limited time budget to accomplish the many tasks they need to do. I have used the “cloud” in a variety of different ways in my courses, but did not find accepting nor grading assignments via the “cloud” helpful because in effect it always ended up requiring more time to accomplish the needed work at grading than did the traditional methods.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Do not get me wrong, the “cloud” has a lot of wonderful uses. But receiving, and then being able to work through and grade a classroom or lecture hall’s worth of student’s assignments is IMHO NOT a strong use of the cloud. I use the cloud in other ways with my courses, but not for assignment submissions.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Perhaps technology of the cloud will evolve eventually into something more useful for educators in the turning in and grading of assignments, but we are not there yet. My time is too limited to waste a lot of it on the navigating through the “cloud” to get the assignments I need. It is easier and FASTER to have students turn in a copy to me on paper.

Yesterday’s long division works today and will work tomorrow. Today’s “cloud” will be obsolete by the time today’s third grader graduates from college, if not high school.

Yeah, yeah, and yesteryear’s whalebone corset will also work tomorrow. Doesn’t make the production of one a valuable use of time or brainspace. Most of you can’t kill, dress and process farm animals or game, yet you manage to survive and eat meat because specialists handle the prep for you. There are also better uses of time than learning to do long division proficiently. The theory should be enough today. You drive a car without understanding how it works. You use your computer without understanding how it works. You calculate a complex formula without understanding how it works. We have mechanics, computer programmers, and Excel. It’s a matter of triage. Analyze what is the best use of that limited brain. (BTW, learning cursive also falls in this category of pointless education.)

This whole conversation brings to mind a friend of mine: a self-employed electrician who is never without work.He has a degree in economics.When asked how he applied his degree to his occupation, he said “I learned I needed a job."

But a line needs to be drawn somewhere. I was a high school teacher, and a few years ago, at a teachers’ meeting, I heard one of our math teachers say, “We don’t need to teach multiplication tables any more because we got calculators.” I realized, as she made that public statement, that she thought we didn’t need Language Arts teachers either.

A possible comeback for Mrs. Olsen: I’m glad you finished your assignment. If you would like me to grade it, please go pull it up on the computer during recess.

Something I’ve wondered — is there “short division”? And how is it different from “long division”? (And why isn’t there “long multiplication”?)

As a structural engineer, calculus is the basis for everything I do. That includes calculating loads, bending and shear forces, beam properties, etc.However…All of the calculus equations have already been solved and reduced to algebraic formulas..End result: I don’t have to perform any calculus, just plug values into a formula and punch it through the calculator (or computer).

The teacher didn’t say she does not know about the cloud. She may know it very well, she just doesn’t accept it as a viable means of communicating with her students. Doing math homework digitally doesn’t show his work. The cloud might be perfectly acceptable for an essay, as long as it doesn’t read like Wikipedia.

Unfortunately, Caulfield, the world is still using long division. Try “casting out nines.”

So short division is something like Jethro Bodine’s ‘guzintas’ (that is, “six guzinta goes into twelve two times”)

As I always say …

All I know about math is that 2 + 2 = 22.

For those who carp about Caulfield’s treatment of Mrs. Olson, please take note the first part of her statement in the last panel.