What was a math class during the 1960s like?

bamboobanga · 06-07-2012, 05:42 AM

was there calculus? i'm so curious right now

Pootie · 06-07-2012, 09:28 AM

Calculus was developed in the 1600s. It has been used in a myriad of industrial and engineering developments ever since then. So, um, yes, there was calculus in math classes in the 1960s.

MaineLonghorn · 06-07-2012, 02:55 PM

But you used a slide rule rather than a calculator! I used to like to play with my dad's.

cty4ever · 06-28-2012, 12:57 AM

My parents like to point out that what I did my freshman year they didn't do until senior in the mid-70s (and my dad went to some super elite, private high school). My mom watches me do math homework and says she can't believe what they make high schoolers do, she hadn't even heard of that until college. My dad says I'm lazy for using a calculator for calculus, I point out my teachers are all under 40 (many only 30) and had calculators and never had to remember the long way, so they don't teach us the long way.

Cokelly · 07-02-2012, 12:12 PM

Haha, my parents are the type that go "numbers...... & letters!!!!, since when does 2+e=5?" Bottom line: I dont want to know what grades they got xD

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Cokelly · 07-02-2012, 04:15 PM

Haha, most of my teachers are REALLY young too, its kind of weird how they saw the education system is broken more than when they went to school!

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MyPaperBleedsInk · 07-03-2012, 01:05 AM

Was probably a heck of a lot easier.
I remember when I was in 6th grade in Middle School in math.... because that was the first year that my parents could no longer help me with my Math homework. They didn't understand it. I heard similar stories from my friends. That their parents had no clue what we were learning at that time.

MaineLonghorn · 07-03-2012, 10:18 PM

I was cleaning out a closet today and came across a few calc exams I saved from my senior year in HS (79-80). Even though I'm an engineer, I couldn't do those problems now!

ArtsyGirl13 · 07-06-2012, 11:59 PM

My math teachers ages are really random, freshman year I had this guy who was probably in his late 40s/early 50s. This past year I had somebody who was late 20s/early 30s and next year I have one of the oldest teachers in the school (somewhere in the 60s). But they all teach us the short way/tricks involving a calculator.

Oblivia · 07-12-2012, 01:27 AM

I hate to say it, but even though those classes were "easier", they probably produced some of the smartest people. Think about it, they had to do almost everything by hand and actually had to think and learn from their mistakes. Today we punch numbers into a computer and it spits us out an answer without an explination.

I wholeheartedly believe that seniors in the past were more intelligent thinkers and applied their knowledge much more dilligently than seniors today.

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Cokelly · 07-12-2012, 11:57 AM

I think that is a bit of an over generalization.^ It differs a lot from school to school.

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keesh17 · 07-12-2012, 12:25 PM

Math is math and hasn't changed in hundreds of years. Besides changes in teaching strategies, some of the emphasis is different - less proof based geometry for instance. Statistics seems to growing as course for kids who don't take calculus. Our high school school also offers a two year sequence in proof-based math (real analysis, number theory, etc.) which is usually only offered/taken by math majors in college.

Cokelly · 07-12-2012, 12:30 PM

Im envious^

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