OPINION

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Like many other schools’ math departments, the math department at Collegiate is incredibly structured. You are placed into an entry level course upon entering Middle School and follow a set trajectory of courses until you graduate. This is different from some other subjects, like English or history, that allow you to sometimes select elective classes upon entering sophomore or junior year. There is a very logical reason for this; you can write poems without taking algebra.

Every student has their subject. Math is not mine. Algebra was my kryptonite, and pre-calculus was the bane of my existence. My distaste for math has been apparent since Lower School, when Mad Minutes were a thing. The premise of a Mad Minute is to present a child with a piece of paper covered in basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division questions. Subsequently slap a one-minute timer on, and see how many they can complete. This doesn’t sound so terrible; however, during my time in the Lower School, the third and fourth grades were ruled by the Mad Minute kings and queens, and I was not one of them. Being the self-proclaimed ten-year-old Albert Einstein that I was, I made it my (first) life goal to come out on top as a Mad Minute King. I went home and proclaimed to my mother that I was going to be good at math. This resolve swiftly met its end when my ever-benevolent mother, hoping to aid me in this goal, informed me that I would have to study flashcards and memorize basic mathematical rules. No, thank you.

As luck would have it, there was a class created for my fellow “non-mathers” and myself. This class is statistics, and, contrary to common belief, along with the Collegiate curriculum list, statistics sometimes seems like it’s really not math. In my first semester, Upper School math teacher Jan Rodgers taught my class the foundation of statistics, and I discovered that it was a class I could excel in, since I felt like it was more about words than numbers. I finished the first semester with an 99, and I am not bragging, as this was the first time that had happened in a math class, or any class, for that matter. The first semester of the class was reasoning and problem solving, not the equation-memorizing grind of algebra and pre-calculus. I loved it.

Our second semester, now called Applied Math, is being taught by Upper School math teacher David Bannard. Entering the class after winter break, my classmates and I were worried that the change of teachers, especially to a teacher known for teaching high-level math classes like AP Calculus, would completely change the ambience of the class. This fear was banished immediately on the first day, when Bannard gave us a choice. We could continue the curriculum for statistics the textbook way, or we could diverge slightly from that approach. The divergence we were offered would use the concepts we learned first semester to follow the path of a class Bannard calls “Discrete Math” or “Applied Math,” pursuing real-world concepts and skills using statistics. These concepts and skills include taxes, mortgages, loans, bonds, savings, finance, budgeting, and stocks. All of these things are essential to the real world and adult life, yet they can be integrated into the study and understanding of statistics.

Up until this semester, many of us young adults headed to college had no clue what these immensely important topics consisted of. We made our choice and have loved it since. Bannard has been telling us about his history of teaching statistics and Applied Math to Collegiate students and how he, among other teachers, first implemented computers and spreadsheets in 1985, two items that changed the face of statistics and how the class is taught.

The implementation of computers brought Excel and other spreadsheet software into the statistics equation. Microsoft Excel is one of the most common spreadsheet programs in the world, and many “desk jobs” request in their applications that you be proficient in Excel or some type of spreadsheet. Learning this software has been another advantage for the students in my class, and many others at Collegiate.

Our most recent project was called “Family Budget.” The assigned task was to create a budget for three people (two working adults and one child). My partner Vaden Reid (’18) and I had priorities similar to those of other students in our class: we wanted to have a well-rounded and balanced budget while maintaining a decent lifestyle. We choose middle class jobs, attempting to plot out semi-realistic career paths we are hoping to obtain within ten years after college. We budgeted for a house (including placing a down payment and plotting out a thirty-year mortgage), two cars on finance, our child’s daycare, phone, wireless internet, electricity, water, cooling and heating bills, state and government taxes, food, clothing, gas, healthcare, homeowners and auto insurance, yearly deposits into a savings account and Virginia 529 plan, work pensions, and Social Security (you can view our full project summary here and our budget plan here).

Before tackling this project, my partner and I were oblivious to the costs of nearly everything listed above. This project in the Applied Math class thus far has prepared us exceptionally for life outside of our parents’ safety, and it has done so better than any other class I have taken during my thirteen years at Collegiate. Reid shares my appreciation of the class, stating, that this “is one of the best classes I’ve taken in high school, because he isn’t just teaching us math. He’s teaching us things we have to know in the real world; how to budget common expenses, probability of losing your money in Vegas (i.e., why not to gamble), and how to use spreadsheets, which is a tool that is used in almost every workplace atmosphere.” The class has taught me to love (some) math and has made me come to realize that just because you aren’t in an AP course doesn’t mean you won’t be dutifully prepared for what the menacing real world might throw at you.

Featured image credit: Pixabay user Wokandapix.