When we are in school we lay the foundation for our future. We learn
a variety of skills that may not appear important at the time we learn
then but later on in life we discover that there really are much more
important than we thought. For example, when we learn math we develop
a multitude of skills that often carry over into life but often never
notice. The reason we never notice it is because by developing solid
math skills in school we become so good at math we do not even realize
we are using it! If you don't believe this is true let's look at some
common uses of math.
One of the most important things in life is to keeping yourself out
of debt and to manage a budget. If not, your expenses will exceed
your savings and this will dramatically impact the way in which you
live your life. Often, people will seriously cause a lot of damage
to their budget through reckless spending. Now, while reckless spending
can refer to buying expensive items it can also occur in spending.
Let's say you are offered a job. The salary sounds quite fine and
you accept it. However, you start noticing that you are accruing debt
and not earning anything. What went wrong? Well, look at the distance
from where you live and where you work. Then, look at the cost of
gasoline. If gasoline is $3 a gallon and your car only gets 15 miles
to a gallon and your drive to work is 30 miles to work and 30 miles
home you will need to spend $12 a day or $60 a week to work. If this
expense worth it or would taking public transportation that only costs
$20 a week the better option. This is, of course, using math in your
daily life and it is clear that developing a skill in math can greatly
help you out.
Also important to life is eating. Now, can you imagine cooking without
understanding math? This may seem like a stretch, but it is far more
common than you think. Can you bake a roast beef in the oven at 500
degrees and for 6 hours? Sure you can, but the end result will be
burnt to a crisp and probably the size of an apple! Obviously selecting
the degrees and the duration is based on an understanding of mathematical
principles. Now, you could bake a cake in at the right temperature
but if your measurements are off because you lack an understanding
of measurement then the cake will be a disaster.
Even leisure pursuits involve math. If you were to play a board game
you need a basic understating of probability such as the odds of taking
a trip on the Redding Railroad or even simply understand the numerical
amount the dots on a pair of dice represent. Yes, it pretty difficult
to avoid math even if you really tried!
This is why it becomes important to develop sharp skills in the area
of match because the commonality of having to use math is - along
with reading comprehension skills - one of the most important educational
skills to possess. While the daily use of math may seem removed from
the common way math is learned in school the only difference is really
the structure. In a formal education, there is less randomness and
unexpectedness. This allows one to concentrate on learning important
math skills without distraction so as to deal with the various distractions
you will come into when you work out math in your head on a daily
basis.