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[Pnx]

I read an xkcd today, the one about fitocracy.

I didn't laugh.  I think "I didn't laugh" is the wrong way to put it though.  What I did was actually less laughing than "not laughing."  It's hard to explain.  There was less than zero laughter going on.

Were we unamused then?

[SirAaronIII]

There was an xkcd about fitocracy?

[Lectorog]

There was an xkcd about fitocracy?

http://xkcd.com/940/


I am sad because Oblivion is not working, after 7 hours of tampering with it. I'm going to have to uninstall and do it all again.

I'm also kind of sad at my life and world in general. Not everything, of course, but too much to list, even to myself. I have no way of expressing myself, for any productive purpose or otherwise. And two hours of sitting in the dark gained me little in the way of mental revelations. I've only been able to conclude that I'm not normal; but that I may be all the more normal for it.

[Vector]

Stressed.  Exams next Monday and Tuesday and I'm sitting here dashing through my homework for Monday and Tuesday, praying that I'll be able to finish early enough tonight to study for both exams, because my schedule is seriously borked and I'm not going to get a chance to study Monday evening.

Ahhhhhhhhhhghhghghgh

On the other hand, work I did previously has made the situation SIGNIFICANTLY less bad than it could have been, so hey.

[SirAaronIII]

Oh, I think I missed that one. Thanks!

[SalmonGod]

Every morning when the light
Comes creeping in around my eyes
Another future falls behind
The one I had in mind

[ECrownofFire]

http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf

Math is dead

[Bdthemag]

http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf

Math is dead

Just reading the first few pages, I totally agree. Especially with the whole art and music thing.

I mean, I hated art and music class when we were a kid. In art class we never drew anything, and if we did it had to be a specific way. And music class we had to copy down notes, and then play/sing an incredibly boring song.

I just get sad looking at the education system in general.

[Protactinium]

http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf

Math is dead

Oh my god my brain just exploded that was an incredible piece. It also explains why I loved my high school physics class reinstated my love for math but my math classes did not: in physics, we analyzed problems and figured them out mechanically before applying the numbers, and we never memorized formulas (but had them available on note cards for the tests).

[Angel Of Death]

Gah. My fucking neck. It hurts so much. And I'm getting too many cramps in my legs.

[Vector]

Math is still alive and well.  It just takes a lot more patience to get to it than it used to.

That, and people no longer understand the idea of "an end in itself," or a "worthy pursuit."  The kids asking "but what will we ever use this for?" are morons.

[Max White]

Eh, send them over to the programming department.
Maths is a minor part of the job compared to system architecture, but when a short mathematical function can get things done so much more cleanly than many lines of code, you can't deny the practical application.

[Duke 2.0]

 It's more an issue of people not knowing how to teach. People won't want to seek math as an end unto itself if they are not shown the wonder of it. In the early stages you need to integrate it in their lives and give it practical applications. I know for sure when learning functions I would have done terribly and just not cared if not for having taken some programming lessons to know their practical use. Otherwise I would have just thought of them as a different format of stuff I already know with no real purpose to them and subsequently not give a crap.

 You gotta give people the sense of wonder first, then you can dive deep into the education. Otherwise it's just forced on people who don't care and will soon resent the teaching.

[Vector]

I have to say, that is the sole reason why I've almost considered becoming an elementary school teacher.  I'm tired of their fear of mathematics being blamed for girls not being able to succeed in math.

On the other hand, I'm also planning on writing a novel that will, among other things, talk about math education--because I haven't found a single popularization, ever, that adequately spoke to what math actually is.  The mathematicians are too busy, and most of them started too early on the correct path... and the laypeople seem to still think that it's all about equations and Trying To Explain The Natural World.  No, it comes from the natural world, but it almost instantaneously transforms into something more art than science.

[Euld]

Just read that entire thing.  And woah.  You know what?  My favorite math teacher EVER was the crazy old fart who said he was reincarnated several times over thousands of years, and was (supposedly) able to personally witness each major discovery of geometry.  When he explained circles, circumference, diameter, chords, and so on, he said he was a cat in Egypt thousands of years ago, and only paid attention to the mathematicians because he'd buried some cat poop in the sand where they were working.  And to this day, I (mostly) remember what he taught, far more than any other math class.