Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Beardsley
I teach maths, mainly to adults, and mainly at a fairly low level and
in a real-world context.
The people I teach are not stupid, but aspects of maths genuinely scare
them. A mix of letters and numbers can, as you say, freak them out.
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So, you're coming to Minnesota and staying with me for the summer?
I'm not 'scared' of or 'freaked out' by equations, but I am averse to
them. When I come to them in text, I want to skip over them and
continue reading. It's like going for a walk, but then coming upon a
60-pound backpack I'm supposed to carry. No, I'll just leave the
backpack sitting there.
More than two variables in an equaton, and it begins to look like a
jumble-- like the dies from a Scrabble game and a numerical game
have been dumped out together at random on the page.
I helped a guy who was studying for a GED. Fractions. I gave
him some fractions to add, and the first one, involving 1/4, worked
fine. But the rest didn't go so well. It turned out that he thought
"one quarter" was 25 cents, so he added .25 in the first problem
and got the right answer.
-- Jeff, in Minneapolis
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