Why Am I Required To Take Math?

Yeah, seriously.

When I look at my life, and the failure of it. I see two culprits.

1. Is my unwillingness to obey authority. Especially those whom I do not see as worthy of being in positions of authority. And because quite frankly, I don’t like licking the boots of oppressors.
2. Math

You might think I’m joking but I’m not. I have never been good at math and I don’t like to be told that I have to do something, when I don’t see a valid reason.

I’m a writer not a math man. Put me in English classes and History classes and I’m golden. I’m good with biology and non-math sciences. I have (or had) a great memory.

But, math was a class I failed at and barely squeaked by.

When I entered college I had to take dummy math, to get up to speed so I could take the real math they required me to take.

I was in special ed, because of my refusal to do math, and my behavior. This was directly related to not accepting fake authority. I obeyed the rules if they were valid and made sense, but just leave me alone.

I was a delightful child, I’m sure. I have stacks of disciplinary reports to prove it.

I spent many days in detention or suspended for not showing up to detention, or smoking or fighting or refusing to obey, or tardies or unexcused absences. (As if I need an excuse, am I your slave?)

I could go on and on about my rebellion.

But, I want to get to the point.

As I’ve grown I have reflected upon my life and why I am a failure. And it’s refusal to obey and being required to take math, which rises to the surface.

So, I considered my problems with math and found that I’m not alone.

Many people have trouble with math and have never needed algebra at any time in their life. Yet, passing algebra was something we were all required to do. (Of course some jerk will give me an example of algebra I use everyday, to which I say, “Go sit down Poindexter.”)

I refused to accept that.

It would have been more valuable to have taught me and others finances. Such as, how to start a business, or how to invest. It would be better to help us get started in life financially. Opening accounts, setting up investments for college and retirement, and other things we actually need.

But, no… we must obey our masters and learn algebra.

So, I racked my brain to figure out why.

Teachers and administrators and leaders have to know that higher math is not used by most people. They have to know that we can use calculators. Even though, back in the dark days of the 80’s they said “You won’t always have a calculator with you”. To which today I say yes, I do. It’s in my phone.

They are not dumb.

It has to be more than just getting us to submit to authority and jump through hoops like trained poodles.

So, I decided to follow the money. Which, since this world is controlled by money seems to be the only answer.

I am required to take math I don’t need, because the school needs to employ a math teacher, and justify the salary. That’s why.

Ok, hear me out.

Not all students are the same. We have different things we excel at and different things we are interested in. I personally believe we are created for a purpose, and our schools should be helping us find it, not forcing us to conform to a sick society.

Some of us love math. Some love building things. Some love music and art. Some love science. And some love history and writing. (We should be raised up to be who we are supposed to be)

But…

Since some children are good at math and are destined to be engineers, and architects, and scientists, and other careers that use large amounts of math.

And since society needs engineers, architects, scientists, and other math people.

We therefore, need math teachers. It’s for society and money, not you.

See?

So, a school must pay for math teachers. And since a school is also a business they want to get the most bang for their buck. So they force everyone to take math in order to justify a math teacher’s salary.

If math teachers only taught students who were good at math and headed for math careers, their classrooms would be nearly empty.

Our money loving system can not tolerate an employee earning top dollar for only teaching small numbers. So we must cram idiots like me into classes to justify the salary.

See? It’s about justifying a salary, not teaching kids.

I might not be good at math, but I can put 2 and 2 together.

It really ticks me off, that my failure in life came because of school systems who refused to actually help kids succeed in the things the child was created to do.

They valued the mentality of obedience to authority, over freedom and success.

Our society can be divided into those who succeed in school and obey authority, and those who do not. We can see the sorts of jobs people are forced to get because they did not succeed in school. Because their parents didn’t succeed in school.

(To be clear, Success is also determined by connections a person or family has. A moron with a rich daddy who knows people can get good jobs, whether he was a failed student or not.)

Schools become the gateway to whether a person lives a miserable life as a low wage worker, or lives a happy life doing what they love and earning a living at it.

Can schools be blamed for poverty?

Instead of helping people succeed, they create obedient workers who are divided into high paying jobs for those who obey and succeed, and low paying jobs for the failures?

And since all the high paying important jobs are filled with obedient slaves, the mentality of obedience continues to be pushed.

And now you know why you are required to take math.

lol.

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Bio: Chris Bunton is a writer, poet and blogger

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