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When I was in 7th and 8th grade, I took algebra. While I was an honors student and eager to learn new things, I still questioned the value of learning this as most kids do. Sure, the teacher provided real-world examples of how algebra was used, but I planned on doing none of those things in my life. I got a be, which sort of ticked me off, because it was screwing with my GPA (yeah, it’s kind of sick that in 8th grade I was worried about my GPA, but I was an honors student and somehow that crap was important then) for something that had no practical application to my life plans.
In college, I took algebra again to fulfill my elective math requirement. I figured I’d already taken two algebra courses about five years ago, so I probably knew most of it. I did. I got another B, but was less upset about it because I knew over the course of earning a degree it would filter out and I’d still end up with 3.8 GPA or better. Again, as a Liberal Arts major I had no idea how I’d ever use any of this stuff, although my instructor reinforced that it was really, really important and discussed the same real-world applications of algebra. Once more, none of this had anything to do with my practical life plans.
Now I’m 47 years old, and will turn 48 in 3 months. It’s been 34 years since I took my first algebra class, and about 28 years since I took my last one, and in that time I have used algebra exactly NEVER. I’ve worked in the corporate world, and while I used a lot of spreadsheets and know that there is algebra under the hood performing calculations for me, the point is that the spreadsheet does those calculations for me. As a writer, I have had zero use for algebra. As a husband, a cook, a friend, a history buff, a roleplaying gamer, a theological seeker, the topic of algebra has come up exactly NEVER.
Earlier this year I went back to school, seeking a post-bachelor’s in Business Administration for the practical knowledge it could give me on running my own business as a freelancer/artists’ agent/small press publisher. Because it’s been so many years, they’re making me take algebra again. Not a math class I could use, like accounting. No, they’re foisting algebra upon me again. I am resentful. I have things to do, things I need to learn that I will use, and I’ve got to sit through this crap all over again. Combine the fact that I have to do about 100 problems a week, time consuming enough, with the fact that it’s an online class and frustration simply escalates. The “learning lab” site where I have to do these problems is unhallowedly slow, and my internet provider is having intermittent troubles due to thunderstorms, and I’m about ready to take a hostage.
So, to sum up, if you don’t hear from me, if I’m not posting regularly, and if I end up behind on some deadlines, blame algebra.
Algebra screwed my math skills up. Let’s say I’m helping my husband out with pricing a game. He says he wants to know how much profit he’d get if we priced something at $10. I already know it is gonna cost $4.50 to make. Because of algebra, I can only see how to solve it as $4.50 + x =$10… And even right now I can’t remember the simpler way to do it. That’s what it did to me, thus I hate it.
Posted by Gloria Weber | August 24, 2011, 9:33 amIf you cannot do algebra, you are going to have a hard time with standard accounting issues such as computing future value.
And it is largely because you never went beyond algebra that you never used it as a roleplayer. A roleplayer with a basic probability course can compute the expected value of an attack to determine whether it is resource cost-effective or not. I have done this quite a few times myself. Certainly people who design the mechanics of RPGs use algebra heavily (well, maybe not Andy Collins, but that is why he sucks at mechanics design — he needs to stick to the soft areas of design).
Now it is true that college algebra courses are horrible. The fail rate for them is embarrassing. I think there is some statistic that the average student in a college algebra course is taking it for the second or third time.
Posted by Walker | August 24, 2011, 9:55 amAlgebra taught me to approach problems with a machete, not an axe. Axes are powerful tools that can power through things, but machetes must be used with finesse and accuracy.
Also, you should know what goes on under the hood. Just ask anyone whose car has broken down, and could be easily fixed on the spot, if they understood more about the engine…
That all made sense when I wrote it; I hope it does so when you read it.
Also, I had excellent teachers, who put everything into plain English. So few math professors are willing to do that.
Posted by Kurt Schneider | August 24, 2011, 10:18 amI am in an online statistics class this semester and expect my experience to mirror your as far as the online part of it goes. At least with statistics I can apply it pretty directly to my gaming. My previous math class in college a billion years ago put me to sleep every time I went to it. Not looking forward to this semester at all.
Posted by Brett | August 24, 2011, 10:22 amTo be fair, in my RPG experience, I still can’t calculate the expected outcome of roll 4d6 and drop the lowest. But that’s because it’s a wacky probability problem. I have simply decided to avoid games with that particular curve
Posted by Jonathan Perrine | August 24, 2011, 10:35 amAs someone who flunked college algebra three times I agree: eff algebra right in its x, where x equals any given orifice. I leave the solution as an exercise for the reader.
When designing RPG mechanics I’ve never had to get more advanced than adding fractions. Your mileage may vary but dice probabilities aren’t exactly hardcore statistical analysis.
In my liberal arts life I once had to design a page / column layout where the columns x and margins y were proportional in a Golden Ratio and where, for a page width n, n = 3x + 2y. That was the only real world algebra I ever needed and it came up exactly once in twenty years. I don’t consider solving for one variable to be real algebra; it’s usually just simple addition or subtraction tarted up like a whore.
Posted by Xose Lucero | August 24, 2011, 11:08 amAnd that said, I got a 96% on my first quiz, so it’s not that I don’t know it or suck at it, it’s that I have never had a practical application for it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying algebra doesn’t have value. I’ve done plenty of accounting in the corporate world, I’ve had to calculate tons of statistical data in the corporate world… and all of it required me to do no more than enter data into a spreadsheet.
Nice to know? Sure. But just as I only need to know some basic automotive tech because there are mechanics to do the hard, complicated stuff, and just as I only need to know some first aid and leave surgery to the experts, just as I need to know how to use my computer and not how all of the electronics work, just as I know how to turn on the TV without understanding all of the broadcast technology… algebra is not a vital life skill, and not a career skill for any career path I have been on and hope to be on.
As for the argument that I’ve also gotten on G+, I have taken math beyond algebra in college; I took calculus, long ago and far away, and pulled a solid B. Never had any use for that, either.
Posted by Berin Kinsman | August 24, 2011, 12:07 pmAlso, I wish I got as many comments on other things I wrote, as I am getting on my dislike for algebra.
Posted by Berin Kinsman | August 24, 2011, 12:12 pmAs a high school physics teacher I find the thing that screws kids up with algebra the most is not the material itself, but the method it is taught in. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve had to explain to an entire class what a square root is. All I do is explain that the answer is the number that when multiplied by itself give you the number under the funny squiggle… and their eyes light up with realization that they can actually do the problem, and they do from that point. I don’t know why the math teachers can’t just tell them that in the first place.
Posted by ShadowAcid | August 24, 2011, 3:40 pm