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I was a student of calculus once. But it was long ago and I no longer remember what it was like. Human memory is bad and we are prone to hyperbole when it com

I was a student of calculus once. But it was long ago and I no longer remember what it was like. Human memory is bad and we are prone to hyperbole when it comes to recalling struggles/good times. A reminder is not a bad idea from time to time. I suppose there are past experiences that you have forgotten what it was really like.

bighi 9y ago
You might not remember a lot of the specifics. But I am sure you remember that you did a lot of sitting and a lot of listening (2 of the 3 surprising findings of the article).
- rhino369 9y ago
  I remember class being boring, but I didn't have these two hour long block classes that seem in vogue now. Well, I did in college and grad school, but you could skip class. Or during grad school it was common to just surf the web when you got truly bored. After reading this I remembered sitting in some really boring high school classes boiling with almost rage at how boring it was. Sitting and looking at the clock. I wouldn't have remembered that without the help of the article. I can easily see how a teacher would lose this prospective.
  - nradov 9y ago
    My father was a high school teacher. When his school shifted to long block classes it was great for lab and shop classes because they lost much less time on setup and cleanup, but terrible for lecture classes because many students couldn't pay attention that long.
Consultant32452 9y ago
Man, I have vivid memories of AP calculus. And that was... almost 20 years ago. At my school each class had 2 PCs: one for the teacher and one for the students. Our student PC was broken and the school apparently didn't have the resources to fix it. My calc teacher let us fix it for her, so we did. Then we started playing Grand Theft Auto (the original). In the game there's this chain of like 8 joggers we called the "school children" (meh, it was pixelated). We'd take turns trying to get a flame thrower and then finding the school children. Then you'd announce you were ready. The teacher would stop the lecture and we'd all go back to the computer to watch you try to flame thrower all the school children in a single go to get some giant bonus points. Then you rotated out. A couple weeks before the AP exam we all decided we should learn calculus so we started cramming. Most of us passed.

bighi 9y ago

You might not remember a lot of the specifics. But I am sure you remember that you did a lot of sitting and a lot of listening (2 of the 3 surprising findings of the article).

rhino369 9y ago
I remember class being boring, but I didn't have these two hour long block classes that seem in vogue now. Well, I did in college and grad school, but you could skip class. Or during grad school it was common to just surf the web when you got truly bored. After reading this I remembered sitting in some really boring high school classes boiling with almost rage at how boring it was. Sitting and looking at the clock. I wouldn't have remembered that without the help of the article. I can easily see how a teacher would lose this prospective.
- nradov 9y ago
  My father was a high school teacher. When his school shifted to long block classes it was great for lab and shop classes because they lost much less time on setup and cleanup, but terrible for lecture classes because many students couldn't pay attention that long.

Consultant32452 9y ago

Man, I have vivid memories of AP calculus. And that was... almost 20 years ago. At my school each class had 2 PCs: one for the teacher and one for the students. Our student PC was broken and the school apparently didn't have the resources to fix it. My calc teacher let us fix it for her, so we did. Then we started playing Grand Theft Auto (the original). In the game there's this chain of like 8 joggers we called the "school children" (meh, it was pixelated). We'd take turns trying to get a flame thrower and then finding the school children. Then you'd announce you were ready. The teacher would stop the lecture and we'd all go back to the computer to watch you try to flame thrower all the school children in a single go to get some giant bonus points. Then you rotated out. A couple weeks before the AP exam we all decided we should learn calculus so we started cramming. Most of us passed.