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School is just one simplification after the other
(sh.itjust.works)
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
My earth science teacher denied plasmas are a thing when I mentioned it
This was 8th grade
I Immediately lost all respect for her and if present day me were around for it I'd have taken her idiocy to the union rep to recommend she prove she actually has the education she claims to have had.
Middle school teachers in Texas only require a generalist certification, a Bachelor's Degree, and completion of a teacher training program to teach core subjects. That cert (which also exists for elementary school teachers) requires only a basic understanding of each core subject area. There are certifications specific to each core subject (I have Math 4th-8th, also Math 8th-12th, along with a Master's in math), but there is no guarantee you're going to get a teacher certified in their field. As such, you get teachers who don't understand their subjects at a very deep level or how what they teach connects vertically to their student's prior education in that subject and what they'll learn in future grades.
It is a big reason why students to come to my high school classes hating math, I think, because it was confusing to them being taught by teachers who only had a moderate understanding themselves and probably taught them lots of memorization tricks and mnemonic devices instead of helping them understand their origins and why they work.
That's exactly why i hated maths when i was in school, i did not understand it. The teachers just tell us to memorise the formulas but i did not understand what is the concept of those formulas in the first place. Now as an adult i admire maths, it's the only language that works anywhere in the universe, math is beautiful! I really wanted to understand it but i just don't have the time and energy. Someday, if i have children, I'll get them interested in maths at an early age. I want them to see what i couldn't, the beautiful world of mathematics.