4 ms·
You didn't bother to engage with the actual examples she gave, e.g. "It’s also a problem if as an instructor you’re using language that suggests that certain ar
by shenberg 6y ago
You didn't bother to engage with the actual examples she gave, e.g. "It’s also a problem if as an instructor you’re using language that suggests that certain arguments are trivial or that this is something that everybody learned in kindergarten. These are tropes that mathematicians like to use, and I think they’re very alienating to people who, for one reason or other, did not learn about modular arithmetic in kindergarten." - this is, in my experience, a very valid point. It doesn't have to be that way, it's merely correlated with how many mathematicians teach.
- Grustaf 6y agoI was only responding to the comment (as I explicitly stated below). Your example doesn’t seem related to politics or feminism at all though. Downplaying the difficulty of everything is just a quirk, one that I personally happen to love. All textbooks have titles like “Elementary X” or “Introductory Y”, no matter how complex. I’ve always found that funny.