If you are 15 but do not already compete at a high level in a sport, the odds are very much against your ever making it to the top in a sport. Yes, there are exceptions, but take a long hard look at the odds before you close off any of your academic options.
Identify which courses are prerequisite to professional school admission, and then take those courses. That will keep as many doors open as possible. At the same time, they will help you learn how to think both creatively and rationally.
Use both sports and academics to maintain a healthy and balanced body and mind. And be sure to throw yourself into it, thus no daydreaming out the window during maths, and no slacking in the sports. Go hard at it all.
To be employable based on your atheletic skills, you have to be the best of the best. To be employable based on your math skills, you do not have to be the best of the best ā you simply have to be competent. Since you canāt know if you will be the best of the best at anything, and since it is probable that you will not be the best of the best of anything, you would be wise to keep your options open.
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First, it is hard to stay on top in sports. There is a world of difference between playing at a high level, which is joyous, and actually giving everything you have to be the best of the best, day after day after day, which is just plain brutally hard work.
Second, the same drive that brings a person to succeed in one discipline often drives one to explore new paths in life, and to succeed in them as well.
Bingo. Take them all. Donāt close any doors at this point. And donāt close any athletics doors either.
Im not a fraud. I would really like to know what makes you think im a fraud. My situation is genuine. Im sorry if i seem like a spoof, im not, im 15 and trying to think through my option classes for next year, which is when they become very specialised.
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Oh, aqua, Iām really sorry. It seemed to me that each message of yours reversed the direction from the last. And I get my leg pulled a lot because Iām kinda gullible. And I was in a funk because Iāve been sick. And the sun was in my eyes, and there was a hole in my mitt.
Anyway, please forgive.
Thanks,
Sue
After checking my dictionary, I see that math is most definitely a noun, but I donāt believe it has a plural. Or perhaps āmathematicsā is plural but is used as singularā¦ Either way, Iām pretty sure that the usage above and others in this thread are not correct gramatically. Almost all of the plural uses in this thread could simply be made singular and the word āclassā could be added following each usage if needed.
I think it would be a more efficient use of my tax dollars to educate kids about what they want to be educated in (you know, like mixing drinks) and actually learn, than teaching them some crap, knowing full well theyāre going to forget about it. If you change your career and needed to know some stuff but canāt remember a damn thing from your boring class you never paid attention to because you hated the subject, then youāre no worse off than if you had never taken the class.
Itās better for them to be smart in something than stupid in everything.
I completly agreeā¦being a high school student myself, i know i would enjoy learning a lot more if class was fun and what we were learning about was interesting.
I kind of skimmed this thread, so if I repeat anyone, apologies. Understanding of mathematics and its principles is, I believe, important if you are going to be a well-rounded individual. The way math and science have evolved have had a profound effect on the world we live in, and if you plan on being a responsible human being you should use whatever resources you have available to at least be familiar with the events and discoveries that have affected our world. The fact that you have discovered this website would imply that you at least have some curiosity about the world in this way. Not popularly known, for example, is how music has a mathematical basis, which was a source of interest for Newton, and how the Deductive Argument in critical thinking bears a startling resemblance to a simple mathematical equation like 2+2=4. This in not to say that you shouldnāt follow your own individual goals, but you do have a responsibility to be aware of what else is out there. When I was in HS I asked many similar questions of the hard sciences; I mean, I was gonna be a Psych major, so what the hell did it matter how many electrons a helium atom had? It was only later when I discovered that one of the interesting aspects of helium is how it can be formed and how the process creates an insane amount of energy, which fuels the sun and is the source of millions of dollars of research every year (Iām talking about fusion). After following this line of thought I spent an extra summer in HS to graduate and eventually came to the conclusion that these things do have varying levels of immediate importance in my life. Now I get 4.0ās, find much more enjoyment in everyday events and have several job offers, and I donāt even have my degree yet. I kinda rambled but I hope I gave you something to chew on.
Just from his posts, heās obviously not a dummy. So why not grab the tiger by the tail and give it a yank? By taking a run at challenging courses geared toward long-term development of both knowledge and thought, heāll have a far better skill set to apply once he figures out which careers are of interest to him.
Asylum says:
Understanding of mathematics and its principles is, I believe, important if you are going to be a well-rounded individual.
It is really much more than that. If you live in a first world economy you are at a pretty big disadvantage not knowing math. Is it better to get the lower interest rate or the $1000 cash back on the car? Should I pay points on my mortgage to get a better rate? This is not grade school 2+2=4 math. This is algebra.
A real life example. My brother in law just bought a car and went with dealer financing. When they were drawing up the contract they specified an interest rate and a monthly payment. The monthly payment on the contract was way to big for the interest rate. If my brother in law did not have a good grasp of math he would have been ripped off.
My guess is that you wonāt be able to do either due to a lack of background in math or music.
If you donāt study a discipline, youāll never really know about that discipline, or how it relates to other disciplines and to you and the world around you.
Although I think Muffin probably gives a much better explanation than I can (at least where to go for an explantion) think of the connection between Math and Music this way: say you have a 4/4 time signature: one full bar is equal to 4 quarter notes and on the first beat of each bar there is an accent. You donāt have to use quarter-notes however, you can use whole, half, eigth, etc. notes or rests, but it has to equal four quarter-beats per bar. It actually gets much more complicated than this, but I only have a rudimentary foundation in music. Iām sure Muffinās sources can give you more, but hopefully Iāve given you an idea of the relationship.
Also I think I need to clarify my comment on my ā2+2=4ā comment. I was refering to a deductive argument. For example: Socrates is a man (2) and (+) all men are mortal (2), therefore (=) Socrates is mortal (4). If you accept the first two statements of the argument you have to accept the conclusion, much like ā2+2=4.ā This is the basic structure for alot of arguments and when you can use it and conceptualize situations in this way it can help you think much clearer. It doesnāt work for every situation however, and then you have to use an Inductive argument, which is a whole nother ballgame.
Im sorry, but i believe that you are incorrect there. My background is music is great. I have played in total 7 different instruments since i was 3 and i have been studying flute and piano seriously since i was 7. My background in maths?? Well, i love the problem solving and communication of ideas, but learning straight facts bores me. This could be due to a boring learning system employed by my teacher.