Re: Education (Was Re: Techwriting After the Boom)

["Jo Francis Byrd" <jbyrd -at- byrdwrites -dot- com>]

I managed to get through high school with only business and general math
(and had a hard time with both) and college without taking ANY math. I'm
living proof you CAN succeed in life without taking algebra.

Some 20 years later I concluded I really should learn algebra (I worked with
geoscientists), so I went to ye ole local community college and signed
myself up for "developmental math" - that's remedial math, however you want
to cut it. Ended up in remedial arithmetic because, after said 20-odd years,
I couldn't for the life of me remember compound fractions (isn't that why we
have calculators?). A TERRIBLE blow to my ego, but it was the best thing
that could have happened to me. I'm not nearly as bad in math as I thought.
Breezed through the course in two weeks flat and plowed into beginning
algebra.

I took both remedial algebra courses and college algebra. It did not come
easy, I worked like a dog and sweated blood for my As and I still don't get
it (applied math I get. Right angle trig clicked right away. "Pure" math
just goes over my head). Imaginary numbers...WHY would I ever need to know
this, it didn't make sense to me. I asked the instructor if imaginary
numbers had any application in the real world, and he said (paraphrasing
here), "yes, they use it determining cat scans, and that's how they found
the double helix on DNA."

OK, I still don't get it, but I do understand why it could be useful to
someone who does. I've seen practical applications of algebra in use. I
can't do it, but I can understand it's a powerful tool for those who grasp
it.

Jo Byrd

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Posada" <JPosada -at- book -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 11:02 AM
Subject: RE: Education (Was Re: Techwriting After the Boom)


 Keith...that's all cute and humorous, but I happen to agree with the
student. Why is it that we qualify degrees by having to go through X hoops?
Shouldn't we instead quantify degrees by being smarter? Wouldn't the student
have been more motivated to learning the subject if the teacher had instead,
replied by giving 2 solid examples of where the skill would be used in the
student's future?

I think I know why...because the teacher couldn't come up with an example of
where calculus would be used, at least not one that he student would think
"Yeah, I can see that...cool!".

 It was the lazy way out.



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