Online Business Accounting

How many people have considered suicide because of math classes?

I don't mean to make fun or mock a serious thing like suicide, but it's a legitimate question. Our educational system is flawed in that you are forced to take classes that you are not mentally configured to do well in - for example, I really really struggle with math. I do very well in real world applications with numbers, for example accounting and econ, those make sense. Math problems where it's just how to take gibberish numbers and get some other gibberish kill me. I'm a very visual person, I don't remember specifics, I remember concepts, so a formula will cause me problems but I can explain economic theories with graphs all day long. My question is this - how many people, forced to take more math than a basic business degree should have to take (calculus), have considered suicide solely because of that class? Admins who require useless math for a non-math related degree should be charged with murder. I have other problems but this is the first time I've thought like this. Taranto - So, the extreme frustration of being forced to take a class that you are bound to fail or at least be miserable in, may not be the whole reason but it can be a big part of suicide. Suicide is simply the easy way out of a terrible situation - I consider Calculus class (especially with a crappy, indifferent teacher) a terrible situation. Not saying it's the right choice, but the question is given a class that you are failing despite 20+ hours a week of studying and homework, be it math or english or whatever, how many people have even briefly thought about suicide? Maybe I'm being a little over-dramatic, but the point is this: after high school, you are getting a degree in something. You should not need to take classes outside of your degree program. Why make a math major take art if they hate to draw and can't even do a stick figure? Same concept.

Public Comments

1. Anyone who considers suicide because of a math class has much bigger problems than understanding math. While someone may claim it as a reason -- he would be a liar.
2. Uh-h-h... How many students, or teachers? <g> wsulliva
3. You know there are left brain and right brain people out there. I am good at math, but I could not draw a pencil if my life depended on it. I cannot ever get the right interpretation of a poem/story/etc. People try to say we are all the same but we are not. Its not a race thing, its a people thing. I would suggest, that you retake math classes but at a slower level. In college I took calculus before i was ready and got scores I had never seen before. really I was getting 18s and 22s. I was an econ major and had to take calculus II to graduate. in college the professors gave no partial credit, in HS if you got the right final answer but missed a step it cost you maybe 2 pts. I had to rediscipline myself an almost start from scratch. lastly, sometimes it is the teacher. I would blow away the applied business math courses, but seemed lost in the pure math theory classes. the reality is its another level of self discipline to get it done. do the calculus homework everynight! It's just like accounting, you have to train your brain via repitition.