So, I decided to go back to the Rational Math blog and look through some of his older posts since I didn't have a chance to look through everything when I started to follow him. So I came across a post of his about Khan Academy, a student posted about how great it is because he now has the time to learn math - our blogger however disagrees.
While reading our bloggers post about Khan, I was quite unhappy with his thoughts - that Khan just teaches you what you need to know - aka how to do the problem but never explains why he is doing what he is. Now, I've used Khan Academy myself, because lets face it, not everything makes sense all the time in math. And sometimes, you just need to learn the section in order to pass the test.
DING! DING! DING! I just pointed out exactly what our blogger was trying to express. Students today don't always take the time to understand the reason why they are doing the procedures they are, they just want to obtain enough information so that they pass their test and move along to the next chapter. Our blogger of Rational Math explains that yeah, he may be getting paid to tutor students in mathematics while Khan is free, easy and at your fingertips, but he explains what they are doing and why. Without understanding the reasoning behind math - you're simply just plugging in pointless numbers - and thats where the famous question will arise...
"When will I ever need this in life?"
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