Here is a scene that has played out many times in my classroom over the years, with students of various ages:
Ellie: “Mr Barton, when will we actually need trigonometry, you know, like in real life?”
Me: “Well, Ellie, one day you might become an architect or a civil engineer, and then trigonometry will be extremely useful to you”
The realisation I reached a few years ago was that the vast majority of maths topics that students cover during their time at school will never be of any use to them whatsoever in their day to day lives…
Craig Barton is an Advanced Skills Maths Teacher at Thornleigh Saleisan College, Bolton.
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