But what about math?

Probably one of the big questions with “Free Schooling” people have is, “what about math?”  How could a child or teen “pick” math, right? Don’t we have to force 80-90% of kids to take math instruction? Who in their right mind would choose math if they could choose not to, right?

Wrong. The real “who in their right mind” for most of us should be phrased “who would choose to learn math as we teach it in today’s schools?”  Not me. I hated math. I learned it – I can understand statistics and probability and algebra and geometry – or at least that which stayed with me after the final exam back in the 80s and 90s when I took formal math classes. Unless you’re a math teacher (Hi M.G. and M.T.!), you probably don’t remember most of what you learned.  But what you USE you know well.

So that isn’t the point, right? Don’t engineers need higher mathematics skills? YES. OF COURSE THEY DO. But what if you are not going to become an engineer? Do you need to sit through several years of formal education “just in case”?  OR…. what if you have learned all your life that every new skill is something that you can acquire.  I used a business term recently to describe it to the head of the Circle School:

JUST IN TIME EDUCATION