And just like that, 1 in every seven kids in the world got royally fucked.
Right?
Let's see, Pythagorean theorem, is what, a couple thousand years old, and a single statement, right? And it's the foundation of geometry and trig. Hell, I regularly say it in my head (a2+b2=c2) when trying to figure out spatial relationships, for dumb stuff no less (will this table fit on my patio with room to walk around it?).
It's how you ensure anything you're trying to make square is square. In framing (shed, house, deck, whatever) it's used to ensure you setup your string in the proper orientation and don't end up with a parallelogram.
And the Periodic table.... The bloody basis of understanding chemical reactions and physics.
I guess if you're not teaching the Periodic Table, there'd be no hope if understanding evolutionary theory, since it's predicated on chemical behaviour.
Seriously… the Pythagorean Theorem is the single most important piece of practical math that can be easily taught to everyone.
And I just recently used it to measure the length of christmas lights I need for my roof, being 15 years out of school.
I'm a software engineer and I think one of my personal favorite random applications of Pythagoras/ trig was in my data visualization class back in scool. The assignment was to take a dataset of Soviet space launches with dogs and display it in an interactive approachable manner (ie less rigorous data science and more local science center), so I thought it would be fun to show rockets for each lauch and animate them rotating around the earth. Queue the trig to place each icon an appropriate distance (scaled to the launch height in my data), angle, and spacing from the earth.
I'll admit it doesn't come up all that often (in web development), but it's nice to have that foundational knowledge to dredge up when I need it.
The first uses of the hypotenuse theorem came centuries before Pythagoras, unknown exactly when it came to be. Pythagoras just happens to be credited to be the first to document it.
http://5010.mathed.usu.edu/Fall2021/BDzierzon/history.html
Edit: Noting that the http site doesn't seem to load in Android WebView mode, fuck Google Chrome, it loads in Firefox though.
PEOPLE FALLING FOR THIS SHIT AGAIN IS INSANE !
They haven't removed the Pythagorean theorem, it seems to be taught in lower grades. This is Pythagorean theorem for the similarity of triangles, which was dropped to remove burden during pandemic.
Periodic tables and evolution are moved to one or two grade higher. NOT DROPPED.
There you go. Now you have the facts. Enjoy the rest of your day 🫡
What the hell are you talking about!? It says in the article that these three subjects have been moved out of mandatory learning.
Meaning that most Indian students won't understand the basic principles of evolution or the most simple understanding of the composition of elements.
Not considering either of these three to be essential mandatory learning is insane.
The syllabus includes of related topics way before in 6th or 7th grade. Some of them are often repeated (may be even intentionally). They learn about elements and their composition in 7th or 8th grade. After having all that, if student is inclined to it they learn more in 11th and 12th grades. Most of students follow up to 12th in India. If you are so concerned go check the textbooks yourself - https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php
Although I don’t suppose most people won’t do that because why put the effort to understand things when you can spew dumb opinions around ?
The reason the topics were rationalised to improve remote learning and reduce burden on students during exams in a country where suicide rates among students due to exams and societal pressures is a real concern.
The way people have been reacting to this is as if students coming out of school are dumb fucks with no scientific knowledge. I bet the ones commenting here doesn’t even know half of what those students know.
It says in the post that 10th grade is the last mandatory grade, so this means many students will miss out on learning about evolution, no?
Correct. After 10th grade, you can choose a "stream" (course). You can choose between science, commerce, or humanities. What's worse is that each stream has multiple branches, and biology is not included in all the branches. So if you were to choose computer science branch in the science stream, you will not take any biology classes.
So a vast majority of students would never learn about some very important scientific concepts if this was implemented, but I'm not sure if they reversed this decision or not.
Evolution is dropped from mandatory and is only taught to students who opt to learn biology, after high school.
These changes effectively block a major swath of Indian students from exposure to evolution through textbooks, because tenth grade is the last year mandatory science classes are offered in Indian schools.
I know nothing of India's education system. Does this mean it's in an optional class now or is this totally wrong?
Its totally correct, 10th is last mandatory grade, after that you can choose which subject you wanna study for 11th and 12th
as said below, that’s the last mandatory grade
This is Pythagorean theorem for the similarity of triangles
could you source that?
See for yourself in old textbook (page 144)
https://archive.org/details/mathematics-textbook-class-10-2006-ncert/page/144/mode/2up
What the actual fuck? Those are all taught way before 10th grade here in the US, even in my-ass backwards state.
I feel like they worded it poorly or misinterpret it from the source. Post-soviet edu has all three at 5th grade (age 10-12), the beginning of the middle school, because only then you can start and learn respective fields for remaining 5-7 years. If you place them in the last year of school it you don't have a room for that at all.
I suppose it should've meant 'in their whole 10-year program', not the tenth grade.
We learned Pythagorean theorem in 7th grade when I was a kid 30 years ago. I think they learn it even earlier now.
Okay the evolution part, though stupid, is religious fundie par for the course. But middle school geometry? Are they fucking retarded?
Short answer, yes.
In 2018, Indian minister for higher education Satyapal Singh baffled the scientific community by demanding that the theory of evolution be removed from school curriculum becaue "no one ever saw an ape turning into a human being." Other political leaders from the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party came to his defense on social media.
That statement alone speaks to his fundamental misunderstanding of what evolution is. Stupid people not knowing a subject, understanding their entirely flawed guess is wrong (I agree with them there) yet not realizing WHY they're wrong, then barring it because how ridiculous what they think it is sounds. Dunning something something Kruger something. I'm 100% for teaching kids that gorillas just dont turn into humans and actually teach them what evolution means.
Everyone knows different dog breeds were invented by god in the 18th century
Geophrey Oliver Dinglehopper?
Clearly that man needed to be taught more about evolution when he was in school.
Yes.
Imagine not knowing the fucking Pythagorean Theorem. Imagine not being able to do basic trigonometry, a cornerstone of physics.
A cornerstone of construction
Hell, I used it to figure out the optimal viewing angle when mounting my TV on the wall.
I use it so often I write a function for it into my calculator in college. Because everything is a sinusoid or triangle it just keeps showing up
Ok don’t make it mandatory but then what would you be teaching instead? These are all like the basic building blocks of chemistry and geometry. You just aren’t gonna teach kids those subjects then?
Seems like you have not TIL’d fully.
Setting aside that it was temporary (though I could agree there is some malice on the committee’s part in this respect), the topics in discussion were already introduced in lower grades and the complex aspects were moved to higher grades.
But the most important part that never ever got discussed since the story broke, is that the change did got implemented because the committee listened to the feedback and dropped the plan merely a week later. [0]
The government and education ministry have some glaring flaws, but this is not one of them. They continue to make questionable decisions that deserve attention and criticism; yet these issues rarely receive the focus that this story has generated.
Please stop with the FUD, even if it is due to your lack of knowledge on the matter.
[0] http://toi.in/WFlcAb44 (apologies for linking this abomination in the name of a news website, but they were the ones to break the news and get the interviews.)
E: missed a word.
Goddamn fascists man.
What else to expect from a RW govt who thinks hindu religious scriptures have all the knowledge
Are they still taught that mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell?
India is super conservative. A lot of Trump’s biggest supporters are Indian in the US.
Those darn triangles!
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