Another thing to consider is that there is a lot of different math: algebra and geometry are quite different and someone being good at one might not be good at the other. As a former high school math teacher and one who saw his kids recently go through high school, I believe that many geometry courses these days deemphasize the logical part of geometry in favor of a more computational form. Development of proofs is useful for reasoning skills, beyond simple logic. Finally, geometry is useful for learning about the world. My $0.02 -rich enbody@cse.msu.edu chris@seberino.org wrote:
I'm teaching high school math to homeschoolers and I'm looking for how to make geometry year meaningful.
I'm having a "crisis of confidence" because from my viewpoint, algebra was 10x more useful for future math and science work.
The only thing I can remember that was useful from geometry was a few volume and area formulas. That can justify maybe a month but not a whole YEAR of geometry!?!?
cs
P.S. Yes yes I know that geometry is meant to teach logical reasoning. Maybe one can get that from chess, debate club and other activities as well if not better? People also say geometry is where you learn proofs. Couldn't proofs be just as easily emphasized in all the other math classes?
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