Geometry is a worthless class in American high school education, quit defending it.

I’m sure this will get downvoted to oblivion, but I don’t really care. Geometry is pointless. Why do we have to have an entire year dedicated to learning concepts that will never be used ever again? Why is our future success dependent on material that’ll lose all relevancy once we pass the class? Why are we wasting an entire year learning something useless instead of things that are required to participate in society? Why are people defending it?

Now I know this isn’t a new or revolutionary thing to say, as a matter of fact I’ve seen it so many times I know what your response will be. “It’s not about the material, it’s about the problem solving skills!” Really? Is that right? Then why are we being graded on the material? Now allow me to use my debating skills to show you how absolutely awful that defense is. I can accept that geometry teaches you problem solving skills, I can’t deny that. But really that’s missing the point, isn’t it? If geometry only exists in high schools to teach us problem solving skills, then why not replace geometry with actually useful material? Wouldn’t it be way more efficient to learn problem solving skills while also learning about taxes, mortgages, and all that stuff that is required in adult life but rarely ever taught in high school? Honestly why do I even need to describe how illogical “it’s for the problem solving skills” is? That’s more of an argument against it than for it. Geometry is also not a very good way of teaching problem solving skills, is it? Of all the vessels to carry lessons on problem solving skills in, why geometry, something that a lot of students just cannot understand? Students aren’t being graded on their problem solving skills, they’re being graded on how well they understand something pointless, so the argument of problem solving skills is completely and utterly void. It’s got so many holes in it, it’s practically nonexistent. Yet, just like the American education system on a whole, so many people decide to be ignorant to its flaws.

A less common (but still notable) response I see is something along the lines of “I’m a tile-layer, and geometry is 50% of my job” or “I use geometry all the time! Just last week I used [a basic concept like area or angles.]” That’s great and all, and I respect all those tile-layers out there, but unless the school is for tile-layers only, your argument is invalid. I’d even venture to argue (and I know this is a stretch) that the majority of high school graduates will not be tile-layers. Now requiring everyone to learn information that will only be useful to a specific career path is an issue with all of the American education system, and not exclusive to geometry. However, I don’t think ANY career is going to use proofs or what not, so why not have the information required for the career be quickly taught in the courses to get degrees in that career/career path? Why waste everyone’s time and effort? Which leads to the next argument, that you’ve used a basic geometric concept like area or volume or angles or whatever. I mean fantastic, well done, you remembered some basic formulas that really could’ve just been looked up if needed. I mean that’s basically the equivalent of knowing a fun fact about whoever invented carrot peelers or something. Sure, you may have used it once or twice when someone is using a carrot peeler and for whatever reason it’s the focus of conversation, and you may even look a bit smart for a moment, but that information is going to sit in your brain doing absolutely nothing for almost your entire life, and if anyone really cared about the inventor of carrot peelers, they would’ve looked it up. This is coming from someone who loves useless facts that I will almost surely never get to share, as a matter of fact I’m probably going to research the inventor of carrot peelers after I’m done writing this, and that leads me to my final point.

Is geometry entirely useless? No. Are you wrong for enjoying it or being good at it? No. But is it applied to the American education system in any logical way? Absolutely not. A year should not be required. I think it would be fantastic as an optional elective class, as well as a small part of another math course, but an entire year requirement is entirely indefensible and utterly illogical. Especially when it’s taking up time that could be used for far more useful material. Come at me, tile-layers.

Submitted February 23, 2020 at 06:34PM by BMSAwesomeness https://ift.tt/2STu6b8