Mathsanity at SHS

April 3, 2013 — by Gitika Nalwa

There is great power in a pen. I’d like to wield it, one day.  I’d like to create alternate realities buried within the dog-eared pages of quaint books, giving the masses an escape from the humdrum of their dreary lives.

There is great power in a pen. I’d like to wield it, one day.  I’d like to create alternate realities buried within the dog-eared pages of quaint books, giving the masses an escape from the humdrum of their dreary lives.
I want to be the next JK Rowling. It’s naive, I know. But I’m not cynical, not yet, as I’ve yet to be battered and bruised by three more years of the school’s math program.
I want to be a novelist, but my life revolves around math, as does that of many others at our school. Without a doubt, our school places too much emphasis on math, at the expense of the humanities.
Between math clubs, math tutoring, and “getting ahead of the curve,” all so we don’t flunk the next math test, there is just no time to stop and think. But I have made some time for just that, and I’ve been thinking …  this math mania needs to stop.
Most of us have chosen our classes for the coming year. I’m no exception, and like most students at our school, my parents have “guided” me. They have “helped” me choose a path that is destined to culminate in Calculus BC, the school’s toughest math course.
So, why does my life revolve around math? Well, the answer simply is, I am a Falcon. And a Falcon must strive to excel in math.
Our school is a factory, churning out techies by the 400’s. It should be a good thing. After all, our school is efficient in producing reasonably successful engineers.
However, the dynamics of this factory unsurprisingly takes its toll on younger minds.
In the summer of 2009, I had just finished 5th grade. My fellow 10-year-olds across the country were no doubt basking in the listless beauty of a summer’s afternoon.
I, on the other hand, was inside, grimacing under the cold fluorescent light that embraced my pre-algebra textbook. I was held captive by the thought that my peers were getting a head start on me in math, because in Saratoga, Mathsanity begins in elementary school!
According to recent data from the Los Angeles Times, 65 percent of sophomores at our school are in what California regards as Advanced Math. The real question is why don’t we have Advanced English with the same breadth and scope?
It’s because few parents are asking for it. Most parents in Saratoga are engineers, and, for the most part, these parents determine how “the factory” is run.
Many of these parents constantly try to compare their children, as if their children’s performance is a reflection on them.
They use math to do this because it’s what the parents, being engineers, are best at. Furthermore, as math is objective, there is no room for excuses and arguments about their child’s performance.
It’s juvenile for parents to prove themselves through their children, whether by comparing math grades or otherwise. And it’s unfortunate that we, as a school, have come to this.
This focus on math is smothering our creativity. It has created a cold and competitive atmosphere that brings out the worst in us. I don’t want to be a mathematician, as I’m sure many others at the school don’t either.
However, the environment of the school pressurizes students to excel at math. If you do enjoy math, that’s great, but I, quite frankly, don’t give a darn.
Let us create an environment, then, that allows students to enjoy and appreciate every subject in its entirety.  There is too much emphasis on math at the school, and it’s time to take a stand—because I want to be an author one day,  not another engineer from Saratoga.
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