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I only think the author forgot that there are people that REALLY cannot do math. It might sound bizarre and weird, but I met more than once person, that did th

by speeder 14y ago

I only think the author forgot that there are people that REALLY cannot do math. It might sound bizarre and weird, but I met more than once person, that did their best to learn, and were intelligent with many other things (one of these persons had a degree in law, another in international relations, and was doing a masters in international law), yet could not do 29/3 without a calculator... Or even worse, I knew people (in that case usually working with more low level work, like burger flipping) that even trying, or even if needed (ie: cashiers) cannot do it right even with a calculator, their grasp of math is so weak (even if they want to have a grasp) that they cannot even use the correct operations. Also the same apply to many other fields, I knew intelligent people that could not read, or that could not grasp history, or geography, and so on... People keep forgetting that brains CAN be very specialized, and be great with something, and terrible with other, and I personally believe that the old way of teaching professions (ie: throw the kid to work with a Master in that profession) was better because of that, currently you throw kids on the school, and the ones that might excel at some things that are not on school (like Music) reach adulthood thinking they are dump and they don't make a effort even in thinks they do have a talent to do.

Jtsummers 14y ago
I don't think the author forgot that, he seems to refer a lot to 'most people' and 'usually' enough to acknowledge that his assertion is not a truism. Besides that, it's a rant, those are often filled with generalities that need to be pared down before we can get to the real discussion.
umsm 14y ago
I don't think the author meant that people aren't walking calculators. I believe he implies that people don't want to understand how to evaluate a math problem. Most people that "can do" math still use a calculator; additionally, they understand what's happening and they can identify an answer that is absurd (because of a key-press mistake).
com2kid 14y ago
> It might sound bizarre and weird, but I met more than once person, that did their best to learn, and were intelligent with many other things (one of these persons had a degree in law, another in international relations, and was doing a masters in international law), yet could not do 29/3 without a calculator... There are multiple ways to learn even something like arithmetic. Some people can naturally juggle a lot of numbers in their head and can basically brute force problems. Others can break problems down into component pieces, work out each individual piece, and reassemble them into an answer. This requires a different type of mental juggling than the above. And then there are those who just have to memorize a lot of problems. When I was in school, we started off with memorization (multiplication tables and such), which requires a large time investment that I am sure many students did not make. (My peer group tended to stay inside during recces and practice our multiplication!) After that I think we were supposed to "naturally" progress to breaking problems down into parts, but that was never really covered all that well. From what I understand, other countries make this part of learning arithmetic very explicit. A good deal of this involves training ones working memory. Right at the end of college my working memory for numbers was amazing, I could do 3 digit divides in my head, and at one point I could even do a binary search to find logarithms down to a decimal place or two! But as with many other skills, they degrade from a lack of use. 29/3? I have a minor on mathematics. If you give me that problem, I'd honestly type "win-r calc 29/3 enter". Now days I have problems just adding up large strings of numbers, I play a bunch of D10 games and I have to actually do math rather than it coming to me instantly! > People keep forgetting that brains CAN be very specialized, and be great with something, and terrible with other, Well yes of course, but we choose what to specialize in! I really do believe that anyone can learn math if they put the time and effort into it. My math classes took 2-3 hours a day of studying a good 4 days a week in order for me to completely grasp the concepts being taught. Repetition of hundreds of problems, as much as I hated it, was the only real way to burn technique into my head, and even then most of those techniques have fallen by the way side! A few still bounce around inside my skull, but it has been a good 8 years since my last math class, so the amazing feats of mental gymnastics I could perform are long gone. On the flip side, ask me to design a test infrastructure for code sometime, and I'm right on it! How about a custom memory allocation scheme? No problem! Specialization indeed.
pvaldes 14y ago
Exactly, this is the point, not a bad or good education. This teacher forget that each brain is different. The "kitchen" for doing complex maths is in a specific area of the brain. Some people have this area not specially developped, or damaged, and compensate this developping other areas. The 90% of the great geniuses of the history are really plain stupid in other fields of knowledge. I understand the frustration of the teacher, but to spread that everybody can do complex math or either is a lazy/dumb people, is exactly the same idea as to spread that everybody can be Mozart or that everybody "can grow a cut leg if trying enough" (salamanders can do, we are much smarter, so why not?) if you prefer substitute leg by brain. There is a biological/chemical/physical structure subjacent. Sometimes it can be changed, sometimes can not be recovered in a reasonable time, and often simply don't need to be changed. The people find a new way to achieve the solution, or simply ask the solution to a machine or other people. Nothing wrong with this.

by speeder 14y ago

Jtsummers 14y ago

I don't think the author forgot that, he seems to refer a lot to 'most people' and 'usually' enough to acknowledge that his assertion is not a truism. Besides that, it's a rant, those are often filled with generalities that need to be pared down before we can get to the real discussion.

umsm 14y ago

I don't think the author meant that people aren't walking calculators. I believe he implies that people don't want to understand how to evaluate a math problem. Most people that "can do" math still use a calculator; additionally, they understand what's happening and they can identify an answer that is absurd (because of a key-press mistake).

com2kid 14y ago

> It might sound bizarre and weird, but I met more than once person, that did their best to learn, and were intelligent with many other things (one of these persons had a degree in law, another in international relations, and was doing a masters in international law), yet could not do 29/3 without a calculator... There are multiple ways to learn even something like arithmetic. Some people can naturally juggle a lot of numbers in their head and can basically brute force problems. Others can break problems down into component pieces, work out each individual piece, and reassemble them into an answer. This requires a different type of mental juggling than the above. And then there are those who just have to memorize a lot of problems. When I was in school, we started off with memorization (multiplication tables and such), which requires a large time investment that I am sure many students did not make. (My peer group tended to stay inside during recces and practice our multiplication!) After that I think we were supposed to "naturally" progress to breaking problems down into parts, but that was never really covered all that well. From what I understand, other countries make this part of learning arithmetic very explicit. A good deal of this involves training ones working memory. Right at the end of college my working memory for numbers was amazing, I could do 3 digit divides in my head, and at one point I could even do a binary search to find logarithms down to a decimal place or two! But as with many other skills, they degrade from a lack of use. 29/3? I have a minor on mathematics. If you give me that problem, I'd honestly type "win-r calc 29/3 enter". Now days I have problems just adding up large strings of numbers, I play a bunch of D10 games and I have to actually do math rather than it coming to me instantly! > People keep forgetting that brains CAN be very specialized, and be great with something, and terrible with other, Well yes of course, but we choose what to specialize in! I really do believe that anyone can learn math if they put the time and effort into it. My math classes took 2-3 hours a day of studying a good 4 days a week in order for me to completely grasp the concepts being taught. Repetition of hundreds of problems, as much as I hated it, was the only real way to burn technique into my head, and even then most of those techniques have fallen by the way side! A few still bounce around inside my skull, but it has been a good 8 years since my last math class, so the amazing feats of mental gymnastics I could perform are long gone. On the flip side, ask me to design a test infrastructure for code sometime, and I'm right on it! How about a custom memory allocation scheme? No problem! Specialization indeed.

pvaldes 14y ago

Exactly, this is the point, not a bad or good education. This teacher forget that each brain is different. The "kitchen" for doing complex maths is in a specific area of the brain. Some people have this area not specially developped, or damaged, and compensate this developping other areas. The 90% of the great geniuses of the history are really plain stupid in other fields of knowledge. I understand the frustration of the teacher, but to spread that everybody can do complex math or either is a lazy/dumb people, is exactly the same idea as to spread that everybody can be Mozart or that everybody "can grow a cut leg if trying enough" (salamanders can do, we are much smarter, so why not?) if you prefer substitute leg by brain. There is a biological/chemical/physical structure subjacent. Sometimes it can be changed, sometimes can not be recovered in a reasonable time, and often simply don't need to be changed. The people find a new way to achieve the solution, or simply ask the solution to a machine or other people. Nothing wrong with this.