• Question: Do you think that if you don't want to do anything that relates to math in the future [ for example, something like an animal trainer ], you should be able to do something else in highschool instead of wasting your time on maths?

    Asked by josiezz on 1 Jan 2020. This question was also asked by eilidh1234567.
    • Photo: Gary Munnelly

      Gary Munnelly answered on 1 Jan 2020: last edited 1 Jan 2020 8:34 pm

      I’m a firm advocate of the idea that it is better to know something and not need it, than to need it and not know it.

      Your teachers have a responsibility to help you to understand the world around you. Maths is a really important aspect of the world, especially now where so much of what we do is governed by computers which are inherently mathematical.

      I think people should be supported in doing what they want to do with their future. That’s really important. If you have goals, your education should help you to reach them. But, I also think there is a broader awareness of the world that you need to have in order to understand how the things around you work.

      So, the short answer is that I don’t think you are wasting your time if you learn maths at school. Personally, I think it is a really important subject and you may be surprised by the ways in which you use it when you get a job.

      Can I suggest that, as an animal trainer, you teach some horses how to do algebra? Because I would pay serious money to see that.

      Serious. Money.

    • Photo: Giuseppe Cotugno

      Giuseppe Cotugno answered on 2 Jan 2020:

      I am afraid that you shouldn’t give up on math completely. I appreciate that studying math can be a pain, especially if it is done very theoretically, but I don’t really suggest to give up.

      Even as an animal trainer you could need a bit of math here and there. Maybe you want to calculate how to best save for a mortgage application, maybe you want to open an animal shop and you need to perform some calculations.

      Math is like a language. If you speak at least the basics of a language you can communicate things like getting directions by yourself without relying on other people, which is handy. If you know the basics of math you could solve some simple everyday problems (like working out where and when to apply for a mortgage) without the hassle of finding and paying a specialist.

    • Photo: Diana Kornbrot

      Diana Kornbrot answered on 3 Jan 2020:

      Knowing a little maths is not a waste of time for anyone, including animal trainers.
      Animal trainers have to choose a regime of rewards and punishments to train an animal to ‘perform’
      Of course, much maths won’t be relevant. Some advice
      For any given lesson ask teacher how lesson would be usweful to YOUR interests, e.g. animal training.
      Try everything offered in science and maths up to GCSE, then choose what inerests YOU for A levels or college or apprenitceship. [Assuming you are in UK system] In any system forcing teachers into explaining relevance of the maths is a good idea.

      A google of aths, animal training came up with

      What’s Math Got To Do With Dog Training?

      Google is wonderful resource. Regrettably and disgracefull BBC and RI are not rpoivding any useful resources

    • Photo: Andrew Harrison

      Andrew Harrison answered on 6 Jan 2020:

      I often say to people that I’m a mathematician, I don’t do numbers: that’s arithmetic. Usually when I’ve failed at adding up a restaurant bill.

      Think of the example of the rubic’s cube in the Christmas lecture. There were no numbers there, it was learning algorithms or rules that allowed George to unscramble the cube very quickly.

      There is so much more to maths that numbers, trig and much of what you learn at school. A key thing that maths teaches you is logical thinking, which is needed in pretty much every job – even animal training. If you’re training animals you need to understand their behaviour and how to influence it. This requires problem solving and logically thinking, which you get from maths. Animals are generally rationale in their behaviour, if you look at it the right way.

      A friend of mine is a dog trainer and she spends a lot of time watching them and understanding their behaviour, which requires a lot of problem solving.

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