math
math
more math
A high school diploma should require at least twice as many math classes as it currently does. Cut out most of the bullshit classes nobody cares about and replace it with math. Why? Because math is your entire world. If you put $1000 on a credit card that charges 20% yearly interest, compounded monthly, how much interest will you accumulate over 3 years if your monthly payments were $10? I remember doing questions that were worded just like this in grade 11, but it was only in the pre-university level math. The retard math required for a diploma did not cover such incredibly important concepts like compounding interest (exponents) and logarithms.
Related to the above problem, we learned in introductory calculus what the maximum effective interest was if the compounding periods were shortened. Monthly interest compounds in larger amounts than yearly interest, correct? Biweekly compounds even faster. What happens if the compound periods were shortened to 0 time, and there were an infinite number of compound periods? It would be written as something like (1 + (1/9999999))^9999999. Go grab a calculator and type this in. My calculator says the answer is 2.71828. Clear that answer and hit the e button on the calculator. What does it equal?
Grasping this concept made chemistry and biology so much easier. Just by looking at the math equation written on the board, we get a vague idea of what the equation is trying to say. Even if we have no idea what is going on in chemistry class, understanding what the formula means lets us figure it out on our own.
Having taken a shit load of math classes for the degree I had before going into engineering, I have a leg up when learning engineering. The guy teaching us how about rectifiers has a thick accent and his sentences often don't make a lot of sense, but I can follow what he's doing by reading his crazy math equations on the board. In a class where literally half the students are failing, my average is around 90% so far because I can read math better than anyone else in the class.
Combinations and permutation were in grade 12 pre-university math. Almost 100% of the high school students accepted into university can tell you the exact odds of winning the local 6-49 lottery where you pick 6 different numbers between 1 and 49. This level of math is not required for a high school diploma, and as a result, people who only did the minimum amount of math required for a diploma have absolutely no idea what the odds are unless they go out of their way to look it up. I really think this needs to change.