Why are high school mathematics taught so abstractly? Is this a necessary evil to understand the core concepts before applying them? Or is it incompetent teaching or curriculum?

I'm a sophomore in high school, We have integrated math courses, and I'm taking algebra 2. I'm a smart kid and grasp any other subject with complete ease, and when I need to learn a small mathematical concept for something computer science-related, it is quite easy when I do my own research. But I struggle in math class, and always have.

The only time I have been taught something with any kind of application, was one-day last year, where we looked at applications of quadratic equations (useless stuff like throwing a ball off of a cliff). And linear equations, which are quite a handy concept to have a good grasp of. Other than that, I have spent the past 4 years learning how to move numbers around, with no tangible goal.

It is an insane task for me to learn something as abstract as math, with absolutely no application. We are learning how to solve Rational Equations now, and it's taking me ages to get the hang of it because I have no idea what they are. I know how to see them, and I know how to move numbers around until the teacher gives me an A, but absolutely nothing else. I have retained almost none of the information, and I can't solve a single real-world problem with math I've learned in class.

This may be the fault of my learning style or a byproduct of just how math works, but I find it to be quite a shame, because I enjoy math, when I have a reasonable application for it. I love statistics, and physics interests me greatly, but math class just seems pointless.

In almost all of my classes, I have asked the teacher to elaborate on some of the applications and uses for these concepts (very politely) and they all genuinely refuse to help me with it.

Submitted March 03, 2021 at 12:42PM by amag420 https://ift.tt/3e5NNYr