Anon Opin
I get we all hated him by then anyway, but it was mental how much backlash Sunak got for wanting maths to be taught until age 18. Almost every country does that already, we're the weird ones for letting students drop it so early.
Mar 28 at 10:55amanon_opin
Show threadGavin4d ago

@anon_opin I'm not sure if I agree necessarily with "maths" as a subject (remembering (or rather NOT remembering) most of what I learned 20 years ago because it's irrelevant).

But if you're willing to compromise on "maths" being more generically about "understanding numbers"; including in a way that students then understand how to apply to real world things like "budgeting" and "understanding exactly how far Klarna bends you over before fucking you" then I think I'm 100% on board.

Show threadMans R4d ago
@_calmdowndear @anon_opin If you don't remember it, how can you be so sure it's irrelevant?
Show threadGavin4d ago

@mansr @anon_opin a fair question I guess, but I feel like the answer is obvious; because if it was relevant, I would have used it at some point?

e.g. I remember that there was a component on "trigonometry". Which I just had to Google because I couldn't remember what it is, which led me to BBC's Bitesize: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/ztj6y4j/revision/1

On that page, I remember what the hypotenuse is and it's equal to the other two sides, and that's your lot.

And have I ever needed to calculate a hypotenuse? No.

Trigonometric ratios - Trigonometry - AQA - GCSE Maths Revision - AQA - BBC Bitesize

Learn and revise trigonometric ratios of sine, cosine and tangent and calculate angles and lengths in right-angled triangles with GCSE Bitesize AQA Maths.

BBC Bitesize
Show threadbicebird 4d ago
@anon_opin Not even that against the idea on principle but I remember at the time a big criticism being that we've already got a shortage of maths teachers, and it felt like they're trying to do the aspirational technocrat thing without paying attention to the actual state of education
Show threadaaron4d ago
@anon_opin
It wasn't the matter of education through 18, withstanding the disadvantage it gives to people who can't/don't want to go to sixth form. It was that it was hardly the pressing issue of the time and he insisted on fucking about with it as some sort of dickheaded legacy anyway.