that has been irritating me ever since I started Fifth year.
Now, I have never been a person who enjoyed maths. Actually,quite the opposite. Maths and I have never seen eye to eye. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if I never had to do maths again. Numbers and figures don’t appeal to me. I detest graphs, angles and anything to do with shapes. The thought of algebra and equations makes me sick to my stomach. The Junior Certificate maths exam was the single most terrifying event of my lifetime!! Maths is an area that I have never excelled in, despite my endless efforts to improve.
Believe it or not, I am not writing this entry with the sole purpose of complaining about my dreadful standard of maths. When we started fifth year, we were introduced to a completely new maths course- Project Maths.
Project Maths is the single most irritating, pointless, head-wrecking course I have ever had to sit through. Although I’m sure most of my peers are aware, Project Maths was brought in by the Department of Education two years ago. This course was designed to help the student to ‘understand’ maths. According to the development team of this horrendous course, it aims to ‘enhance the student learning experience and lead greater levels of achievement for all.’
I will be the first to say that it has only made math more difficult, especially for those who aren’t mathematically minded like myself. Now, not only do you have to do the sum and get the right answer, but you have to understand WHY! I ask you, is this really necessary?
I don’t know about you, but I just want to complete the math’s course, pass my leaving certificate and NEVER look at maths again. I was content by simply getting the answer (on the rare occasion that I succeeded in doing so) I didn’t understand what I was doing, but it didn’t bother me. And I wasn’t asked. It was a win,win situation. Unfortunately,those days are over.
‘Welcome to the wonderful world of Project Maths’ exclaimed the teacher on my first day of
5th year. Wonderful? I’m not so sure.
JOS