vakkotaur | Entries tagged with learning

I've heard references to "the new math" from time to time and from what I can gather it was a change in the teaching of mathematics that happened as a reaction to the launch of Sputnik. Since Sputnik I was launched in 1957 and I was born rather later, I never encountered whatever the "old math" was. It seemed strange that were "old" and "new" versions of math. Didn't numbers work the same, after all?

I've heard Tom Lehrer's song, New Math which has this in the introduction:

Consider the following subtraction problem, which I will put up here: 342 - 173.

 342
-173
----

Now remember how we used to do that. Three from two is nine; carry the one, and if you're under 35 or went to a private school you say seven from three is six, but if you're over 35 and went to a public school you say eight from four is six; carry the one so we have 169, but in the new approach, as you know, the important thing is to understand what you're doing rather than to get the right answer. Here's how they do it now.

Three from two is nine? Seven from three is six? Eight from four is six? These are alien ways of describing things to someone who got taught the "New Math" method which the song describes. I didn't think much about it until recently as I wondered if the New Math really is an impediment to getting a problem solved. I decided to see if I could make sense of the odd, to me, lines in the introduction.

( Arithmetic, revisited )

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: New Math - Tom Lehrer

As a kid, I once started to look at a book on how to draw things. It was probably filled with reasonably good advice, but I didn't keep looking at it for very long. Maybe I looked at it as a possible purchase (or to ask for...) but the information didn't make sense to me. What it did was start off with drawing lines and circles and ovals to rough out a shape of a person or animal. But that wasn't the shape of the thing being drawn! It had all this extra crap. What good was that? And since it didn't make sense, back on the shelf it went.

Of course, those construction lines weren't a real problem. They were meant to be a framework for later lines. The later lines would be inked and after the ink dried, the construction lines could be erased. The problem was that I did not know that and the text did not explain that right off. So, to me, not aware of the sequence of events, it looked like so much nonsense. Had there been even a short summary of procedure right off, the results might have been a bit different.

It's not just books on drawing that have this problem. When I first looked at electronics, at the very basic part, there were endless exercises using groups of resistors. These don't seem to do much. They limit current. They generate heat. But they're not exactly exciting and a circuit of a battery and a bunch of resistors just seems wasteful. It wasn't until I read a book my grandfather had given me that I got something of an explanation. It brought up the question I had, "Why all this fuss with resistors?" and answered it by saying they represented loading, and were just easier to consider than, say, motors or lights and the more interesting would be coming along soon enough. Elements of Radio started off differently and introduced each new component as a need for it was explained. This made even more sense.

I am not blaming the flaws of one book for my not drawing things. Had I been as determined about that as I had been about other things, one poorly explained text would not have mattered. It's just an example that getting into the fiddly details of how to do something, without explaining the why, can cause confusion and with it a loss of interest.

Current Mood: calm

A few new folks have shown up on IRC recently. It's been interesting, if disheartening, to find that some things seem not to change.

I'll quote one person, "I joined the #warnercafe on mirc and was at least welcomed with a "hello" right away. That's pretty rare from the few rooms that I've been to." Shouldn't being welcomed or at least acknowledged be the norm? It's certainly understandable that if everyone is /away or a channel is crowded and busy that someone might not be acknowledged, but to have something as simple as a harmless "Hello" be a rarity is a disappointing indictment of humanity.

There were a couple other people, friends of one another, who showed up even more recently. They seemed to be not quite familiar with things, but willing to learn. Yet what happened seemed to be that they were either ignored or poked fun of. Sheesh. I suspect what happened is that they made some minor blunder typical of those who have just discovered IRC and instead of a gentle correction or suggestion, they were ridiculed for their ignorance. Once again, ignorance is a curable condition. But only if it is treated. Belittling someone isn't nearly as effective as suggesting (Note that it's suggest, not order. Orders build resentment, suggestions don't.) a more acceptable way to do something.

I've left my session connected for a good many days and just set /away at times, and in scrollback I see these guys have been on at night or when I'm at work. I've seen that one guy was quoted, seemingly mocked, in the topic of another channel. So I know they've been around, on and off, for at least a few days.

I got the distinct impression a night or two ago that I was the first person who talked to one of these guys and gave straight answers instead of using them for crude entertainment or just blowing them off. They weren't asking things like "A/S/L?" or "Wanna cyber?" that deserve ridicule, nor were they making bogus claims of great cracking feats. They were just asking about the names they used or wanted to use, and weren't aware of what network services could do for them. The thing is, they should have gotten those answers much earlier.

This morning I talked with the other fellow. Guy said I seemed legendary. I don't see that. Evidently simply not being a jerk and actually answering questions in a friendly, straightforward manner is that all it takes to be legendary nowadays. How very sad. What I did was nothing special. It's what I expect would be, and indeed should be, the norm. Being reasonable ought to be a typical, normal, and quite unremarkable thing.

Want a better world? Be legendary. It's pretty easy these days.

Current Mood: disappointed

When I was attending a technical school I wound up making a bit of money, or perhaps I should say offsetting some of the expense, by tutoring. Most was within the settings of the tech school itself, as part of its own program. There was one instance where it was outside the tech school and was for a kid in (junior) high school, who needed help with algebra. The interesting thing is that of all the students I encountered, and there were a fair number, none of them didn't know what they came to me (or someone) for. They knew the subject, they just didn't believe that they knew it.

In many cases it was a matter of translation. One person, who did not speak English as his first language, had trouble with vague instructions, but that was all. Once he knew what was really being asked of him, he had no trouble at all. Others had similar problems. They knew, it seemed to me, what had to be done but didn't realize that they could do it.

A friend of mine even showed up. He had the simple parts of an electronics course down just fine. He could work out series resistances and parallel resistances easily enough, and work out simple currents and voltages without much trouble. Yet when he was presented with something that was a set of combinations he'd panic. The thing as a whole looked complicated. He couldn't see the trees for the forest, really. When it finally dawned that a complex thing is just a bunch of simple things stuck together, it got easier for him.

The kid with the algebra concern wasn't dumb. He wasn't panicking. He was just.. bewildered, I guess. I think I spent more time asking questions than answering them. That was the way for most, really. Actually, nobody I encountered was dumb. At the very worst, they were maybe a bit more ignorant than might have hoped for, but ignorance is a curable condition. More likely they were just uncertain. There was a point, now that I look back, where things crossed a threshold. It went from "This is how it's done." or "This is how he does it." to "This is how I do it."

I now realize that I never taught much of any electronics, or mathematics, or chemistry, or any school subject. I taught confidence, if only a little. John Taylor Gatto has pointed out that most people can do pretty much anything, given the opportunity and the time to do it on their own schedule. But they also have to believe that they can, and that's the hard part. And I've pondered things I've not done, at times, and wondered why not. And it's the same wretched problem. I think I don't know some bit and so don't do something when what I need to do is have a whack at it and find out which bits, if any, I really don't know. Then go take care of that and have another whack at it.

If I'm like those I encountered before, and I expect this to be the case, then the only thing really keeping me from doing anything is me. Sure, I've heard this line before, but hearing something and actually believing something are very different things. Now if I can just convince myself of that... and remember whatever it was that I wasn't doing.

Current Mood: good

Fair warning about the links below: Some folks might find some of the language used in the postings linked below to be offensive. And I might use some forceful language myself.

There was a post by 2_gryphon. And xydexx has what seems an interesting reaction to it. Another, dour, pointed out that identifying symptoms is not in itself treatment. Someone else, I forgot to note who, pointed out this contrast.

2 says the post is him just letting of steam. Fine. No problem. But it's not just his blowing off steam. The "just die already" attitude is not unusual. While there may be those who are genuinely determined to be miserable, it's more likely that the case is one of learned pessimism. The thing with learning is that there is often a teacher of a sort involved, though probably not in the formal classroom sense.

When one finds that the supposed friendly pat on the back was no such thing as claimed, but just a ruse to attach a "kick me" sign, a lesson is learned. When one walks along minding one's own business and is actively tripped, a lesson is learned. When one is told a joke in such a way to make one the victim of it, a lesson is learned. Each incident alone might be small and forgettable, and maybe even forgivable - once. But if they are repeated, the lessons are reinforced. Those are but three examples. There are so many other things that can, and do, happen to some.

Would it be any wonder that someone who experienced this sort of thing, over and over and over again, would learn to be paranoid? After all, the pat on the back can't be trusted, so maybe it's best not to be touched at all. It's safer. One can't trust people not to trip, so keep your eyes open - and look down to see where their feet are. The joke is at your expense, so it's best not to play along. And this makes a person look like they're paranoid, and depressed, and humorless.

And then people, often even the ones who taught all those things, wonder what's wrong with that person that he is so miserable. It's because they taught him to be miserable. A simple apology, even if actually heartfelt, will not undo all that. Genuine friendship might, eventually, mitigate the effects. And then there are the objections that this person "doesn't want to be friends with anyone." No. That person probably wants that more than anything else in the world. But he's learned that opening up to people -- the evil teachers of the lessons of paranoia, depression, and mistrust -- only makes him a victim yet again. Defenses go up. And with each new lesson, the fort walls get thicker and the armaments get heavier. Getting though all that will take effort. And it'll be slow going.

The deserving targets of outrage and disgust are not the people who wound up like this, but the bastards who did it to them.