Eric's Tool Theory
This "Theory" was developed over a number of years. It all began when i was tutoring math in Houston and i would hear the question "when am i ever going to use this"? This question bothered me. There are times that it would keep me up at night. I pondered this one, with frustration, for about three years. Then, one day, it hit me. The reason i couldn't come up with an answer is because the question itself was a flawed question. I then started answering "You won't. You'll never use it. Your attitude has ensured that." Here's the deal. You will only use that which you have. Whatever problems in life arise, you look in your "toolbox" and see what tools are there to address the problem. You will solve the problem with whatever tools you possess. Math is nothing more than a tool. If you learn it, it becomes a tool in your toolbox; waiting patiently. When a problem arises, you look in your toolbox. If the math is there, you will use it to solve a problem. If it is not there, you won't use it.
I asked a student once; "Pretend, for a moment, you are not my student; you are an employee. The boss asks you to find out how much water a wooden trough (rectangular) will hold. How will you do it"? The student thought for a moment and replied "I suppose i'd take a milk jug and fill it with water and see how many jugs the trough would hold." I replied, "Excellent! You solved the problem. Now, what you did was you looked in your 'toolbox' and saw a milk jug. If, next to the milk jug, you saw a tape measure and you saw that there were 231 cubic inches to the gallon, you could have simply measured the box, multiplied the dimensions, divided by 231 and gotten the answer that way. Either way, you solved the problem. One was more labour intensive than the other."
So, "If you have a tool, you'll use it." That's it. That's the tool theory. Let's expand it a little. When your wife asks you "Honey, do you really need that hammer drill"? The answer is "No, i don't." Trouble is, without the hammer drill, there are jobs you cannot do. When your wife comes home with a flag to put on the house you will have to say "Pick any spot on the wood part of the house and i'll mount the flag there." If you had a hammer drill, however, you could say "Pick any spot on the house and i'll mount it there."
How does one quote Shakespeare? One must be familiar with his works. When one becomes familiar with the works of Shakespeare, they become a 'tool' in the 'toolbox'; ready to be pulled out at a moment's notice.
When a musician learns how to read music, reading music becomes a 'tool' in the musician's 'toolbox.' The musician is then able to use that tool to bring joy to people.
Learning the ins and outs of cooking becomes a 'tool' in the cook's 'toolbox.'
The point is, people rarely go out and learn something at the point of need. The learning and the equipping must take place beforehand.
Eric Stromberg