Fractions

[Mince]

Give me one reason why they are worth learning.

[Roger Kettle]

Half of me would like to.

[Mince]

 

Well, apart from simple halves and quarters, which most children would learn from pizzas, I can't think of any good reasons for learning fractions.

I know that 0.4999999999999999999 (recurring to infinity) and 0.5 are the same number, but that curious piece of information has not featured greatly in my life.

I also know that there are numbers bigger than infinity, but again, this doesn't help much when washing reusable nappies.

[Redundant]

I like fractions.   When I want to know what time it is, and check the clock, I subconsciously use fractions to tell the time.  When I buy a hat I know that size seven is too small, that size seven and one eighth is a perfect fit.   When cooking fractions are used, either through measurement or experience, to provide the right quantity/weight of the ingredients.   Fractions are used in the calculation of how much the petrol station, and the government, are ripping me off for the cost of petrol.   None of it shows up as one number over another, but without the underlying knowledge of fractions, and how they can be applied, well like I have recently said, "stupidity is the new norm".

There is without doubt a lot of time wasting in schools, as there is in any large organisation.   There is without doubt content taught in schools which may have no direct correlation with the subsequent adult life of an individual.  Education, within organisations, is not based on the individual, it is by necessity a broad sweep of the brush.   It would be nice to be able to tailor a child's education to suit the adult they will become, but unless someone invented time travel and didn't tell the rest of us, we don't know what that adult life will be, or how it may change.

There are many problems within our educational system, but in my opinion fractions isn't one of them.

[Mince]

I don't use fractions for any of those. You must have one weird life. I have to admit that I use fractions for calculating prices per kg for food, but that's about it.

[Redundant]

So you've never had to be somewhere at half past, or quarter past or quarter to?   If not fractions of an hour what are those times?   Even if you only use fractions as you describe, and I sincerely doubt that is the case, then you have already answered your own question, i.e. one good reason they are worth learning is to "calculate prices per kg for food".

The Defence rests M'Lud

[Mince]

As I said, halves and quarters are pizza stuff: you don't need school for that. I'm asking why kids need to know how to add 1/4 and 1/3.

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

It's good to learn that not everything you'll ever learn in life will be useful, or even should be. Lord forbid that the opposite should be true. There would be no artists (what's the point of them?), musicians (what's the point of them?), or people who know how to break things into small, measurable pieces.

And no fun.

[Mince]

I didn't say they were not fun learning. I asked whether they were worth learning. If something is worth learning simply because it is fun, then why don't schools teach playing video games, or playing Monopoly? Schools have to answer the question: why do I have to learn this?

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

Monopoly is fun? Not in my book, or life. Horrendous game, that teaches greed and cheating your way to the top.

I'm not saying anything should specifically be taught because it is fun, but that all subjects can be fun to at least some students.

Same with "worth". Surely that is defined differently by everyone? If you're not even remotely artistic, then where is the worth in teaching you art. That does not make the subject worthless, does it? Only to you. All learning will be worthless to some people, but none of it is worthless to all.

[Diane CBPFC]

As I said, halves and quarters are pizza stuff: you don't need school for that. I'm asking why kids need to know how to add 1/4 and 1/3.

You have a 1/4 of a pepperoni pizza left over in the fridge in one box and 1/3 of another in a different box left over from a party.

Next day at lunch time you need to share out the pizza equally with a set of red-haired 8-year-old identical triplets two of whom don't like tiny pieces.

[Mince]

Same with "worth". Surely that is defined differently by everyone? If you're not even remotely artistic, then where is the worth in teaching you art. That does not make the subject worthless, does it? Only to you. All learning will be worthless to some people, but none of it is worthless to all.

So why do schools have compulsory subjects if it's all subjective. Why fractions instead of, say, using a compass?

[Shufflebottom]

I had a fraction once.  My arm was in plaster for 3 weeks.

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

Or 3/4 of a month... if it was February... most years.

[Mince]

Yes, but it's not really 3/4, or anywhere near. If we find the LCM of 31 (longest month), 28 and 4, we get 868. So 3/4 is 651/868, whereas for February the fraction is 28/31, which is 784/868, and nearer 90% than 75%. So I don't agree at all.