I’m not saying totally ignore STEM. But do 12th graders really need to know logarithms? Maybe take a few weeks to calculate your taxes instead and understand how tax brackets work.
Logarithms and exponentials were pretty important for understanding the pandemic. Understanding logarithms and exponentials is important for getting the behaviour of interest (which, if you want to use credit cards, is pretty key).
More generally, learning maths gives you the skill to be able to learn how to do all these key life things like budget etc… — it gets you numerically literate. Means when something comes up like (for example) scaremongering over vaccines, you know enough about maths and stats to interrogate the statement made and determine whether you believe the study. Just teaching the skills without their basis is flawed imo.
I’m not saying totally ignore STEM. But do 12th graders really need to know logarithms? Maybe take a few weeks to calculate your taxes instead and understand how tax brackets work.
Logarithms and exponentials were pretty important for understanding the pandemic. Understanding logarithms and exponentials is important for getting the behaviour of interest (which, if you want to use credit cards, is pretty key).
More generally, learning maths gives you the skill to be able to learn how to do all these key life things like budget etc… — it gets you numerically literate. Means when something comes up like (for example) scaremongering over vaccines, you know enough about maths and stats to interrogate the statement made and determine whether you believe the study. Just teaching the skills without their basis is flawed imo.