Oh boy.

Just so amazing at doing diff eq in his head that all his teachers got peanut butter and jealous over his math skills.

I take it you never got told off in maths for not showing your working trolley.

So you may struggle to understand that the focus is on the method and not the answer. Somewhat misddirected at times because the concern is for students who use the rightish method but get the wrong answer - that still gets lots of the marks. It's nothign to do with your your jeolousy thingy.

Yeah my point is that his frame of reference for how good he imagines other teachers are largely comes from his actual experience either with teachers teaching an entire class or the student outcomes that largely result from such setups. And how good he imagines he'd be at teaching largely comes from him fantasizing about him being alone with the student and him being able to come up with one brilliant personalized analogy after another, allowing this otherwise ordinary student to reach unforeseen heights of mathematical bliss.

This is of course simply not how teaching actually works and the lack of brilliant analogies is by and large not what is holding back students, but this is definitely what's going on in David's mind, which is why this whole "differential" derail is largely serving David's agenda, at least in his mind.

Stop trolling trolly. The men is willing to give you free advices.


Here are some math jokes, funny af !


How does a mathematician plow fields? With a pro-tractor.
What’s a math teacher’s favorite kind of tree? Geometry.
Parallel lines have so much in common … It’s a shame they’ll never meet.
What do you call more than one L? A parallel!
Why wasn’t the geometry teacher at school? Because she sprained her angle.
I had an argument with a 90° angle. It turns out it was right.
Did you hear about the over-educated circle? It has 360°!
What shape is usually waiting for you inside a Starbucks? A line.
Why doesn’t anybody talk to circles? Because there’s no point.
Why was the obtuse triangle always upset? Because it’s never right.
What do geometry teachers have decorating their floor? Area rugs!
What do mathematicians do after a snowstorm? Make snow angles!
Why did the mathematician spill all of his food in the oven? The directions said, “Put it in the oven at 180°”.
Why was math class so long? The teacher kept going off on a tangent.

Why did the student do multiplication problems on the floor? The teacher told him not to use tables.
Did you hear about the mathematician who’s afraid of negative numbers? He’ll stop at nothing to avoid them.
How do you solve any equation? Multiply both sides by zero.
Which tables do you not have to learn? Dinner tables!
Surgeon: Nurse, I have so many patients. Who do I work on first? Nurse: Simple, follow the order of operations.
I met a math teacher who had 12 children. She really knows how to multiply!
Why was the student confused when he went from English class to math class? Because he was taught that a double negative in English is bad, but in math, it’s a positive.
What tool is best suited for math? Multi-pliers.
Why was Mr. Gilson’s class so noisy? He liked to practice gong division!
Why did the girl wear glasses during math class? It improved di-vision.
A father noticed his son was sad coming home from school one day. “What’s wrong?” The father asked. “I really don’t like long division,” the son answered, “I always feel bad for the remainders.”
What’s a swimmer's favorite kind of math? Dive-ision!
Do you know what seems odd to me? Numbers that aren’t divisible by two.

Do you know what’s odd? Every other number!
Why was six afraid of seven? Because seven, eight, nine!
A talking sheepdog rounds up all the sheep into the pen for his farmer. He comes back and says, “Okay, Chief — all 40 sheep accounted for”. The farmer says, “But I’ve counted them and I’ve only got 36!” The sheepdog replies, “I know, but I rounded them up.”
I hired an odd man to do eight jobs for me. When I got back, he’d only done jobs one, three, five, and seven.
What are ten things you can always count on? Your fingers.
Are monsters good at math? Not unless you Count Dracula.

There are three kinds of people in this world. Those who can count and those who can’t.
Why didn’t the quarter roll down the hill with the nickel? Because it had more cents!
What did the spelling book say to the math book? “I know I can count on you!”
Why do teenagers always travel in groups of three, five, or seven? Because they can’t even!
What do you get when you cross a dog and a calculator? A friend you can count on.
Why did the two fours skip lunch? They already eight!
How do you make seven an even number? Remove the S.
Fraction jokes
Which king loved fractions? Henry the ⅛.
There’s a fine line between a numerator and a denominator… But only a fraction would understand.
How are a dollar and the moon similar? They both have four quarters!
Why did ⅕ go to the masseuse? Because it was two-tenths!
How do we know the fractions, x/c, y/c, and z/c, are all in Europe? They’re all over c’s!

What do you call two friends who love math? Algebros.

I can never resist:
what's purple and commutes? An abelian Grape

I, too, can solve f(x) = f'(x) in my head. Amazing genius!

Chez,

A: shut the **** up.

B: if he aced his diff eq class, he must have been lying about not knowing what a differential equation is.

I dont want to make it too much about DS but the 1-1 thing is so important. So many people who 'can't do maths' can be taught to prefectly reasonable at it with decent 1-1 tutoring. Same as with thinking rationally. Teaching people to ace the exams is also fairly easy 1-1 and much more difficult within a class. There's also likely to be a large self-selection bias with those who agree to 1-1 tutoring.

On the more interesting part of this topic. The biggest problem with people who struggle with maths is that they think they can't do it. The 2nd biggest problem is that think they can do stuff that they cannot. I've tutored a few 'impossible' cases and I tackle those problems and the rest is trivial

A huge part of this is just the motivation factor of having someone who's there just for you. Most students most of the time aren't even remotely trying hard and really find it difficult to care. Tutoring creates that personal accountability - you can't just not show up or not be there mentally because the other person is there just for you. And some level of comfort, for those that avoid the material because they are anxious about it. I mean, anyone's who's ever hired a personal trainer should know this.

I'm guessing that "political" in the context of that statement means "reflexively inclined to support the same team." But that's just a guess.

Maybe. It's just small sample personal experience but when I say 'impossible' cases, they were nearly always people who had had others tutors. Sometimes many.

I, too, am in the top 5% of mathematics educators nationally.

This one time, at some back-alley dive joint, I dropped 500 bucks on lap dances to teach the strippers to count.

So when you say "practitioner" of teaching calculus what you mean is you once tutored one person, in contrast to me who is actually a practitioner and have taught many thousands of students calculus in person and tens of millions online.

But sure, David, you are the top 5%er.

As for Cuepee, I don't really know what to say. No, a fixed inability to do "rote learning" is not close to the primary barrier facing students learning calculus nor does that characterize the primary skill being tested for.

Sure I think you made that edit after I wrote my response (so I wasn't addressing your impossible cases comment) but either way, that motivation is important doesn't mean instruction has no value or that everyone's equally motivating in a 1:1 setting.

Fair enough and I can't disagree with that.

Speak for yourself, "rote memorization" and "practical implementation skills" (or the QP indicator) are now my new go-tos for judging people. I'll let those Harvard boys know that they may have a big Q but their small P makes them useless in the real world.

I've taught large groups several times. Obviously some of my techniques wouldn't work in that setting but plenty of them would. Twenty years after my father stopped teaching math and logic at City College and Columbia (where he got great reviews I still have), he took a part time Job teaching at his hometown college Fairleigh Dickinson. His four math Phd colleagues got so irritated at his dumb down, not completely rigorous techniques, (which were applied more liberally than he did at previous schools) that they complained to their superiors. But he was not reprimanded. Partially because it was known these four couldn't hold a candle to him in either math knowledge or math skill. And even more importantly because these normally struggling type of students were doing much better than those in the other, umm, partial differential equations classes.

I picked your post to reply to because you seem willing to change your mind if new information comes your way, unlike others who consciously or unconsciously worry about the personal implication to them if a stance I'm taking turns out to be right. And because the subject matter of your post is important. I'm ignoring the dozen or so other attacks on me because even though every one of them could be at least somewhat refuted (for instance I won a $2000 scholarship given by the Accountants of America, because I came in first in a statewide math test) partially because I don't feel like playing whack a mole, and partially because there are already many non inconsequential people who know that there are enough (admittedly) cherrypicked subjects that I contribute to, that make my thoughts more worth learning than the thoughts of people who know much more than me but only about things where there are people who know more than them.

Correct.

Chez is not playing the game right now and Trolly is getting very irritated. This is supposed to be a pile on fest. A circle jerk of the team against DS. Thus any one addressing, even of the most specious stuff being thrown at DS should just remain silent, if you don't want to contribute to the pile on. That is literally the expectation and demand. that is if you want to be seen on the right team.

Thus why you do not see 'others' jump in and call them on the ridiculousness of this line of attack. Again fine if you take the d2 route (i respect that way more) of just saying I don't like or respect you so you will get crap from me... but the pretense to dress it up as other and as genuine is where I take issue. Especially when the circle jerk squad jumps in to provide the validation so someone making very wrong arguments can feel correct anyway because 'so and so sides with me'.

Good because that is not my argument.

Again if you are told you to run the number Pi through these 15 equations but you are expected to be able to recall Pi and you cannot, and another person can and thus can then do the test that does not mean the other person is more intelligent.

especially if you just supplied them both Pi and then saw the first person actually scored way higher.


So, my point again is, that while educators will say but look at all the stuff 'AFTER' I require the recitation of Pi that are geared to application and thus not rote learning, ...therefore your criticism of rote learning do not apply, that is not true.

Even if the rote learning part is only 5% of the test if it is necessary to know it to start the test the other 95% will never get tested.

I didn't know you had taught large groups.

Are you ever going to do a book on rationality/logic maybe based on those courses?

I love the strawmen and how they indicate that you know you failed in your arguments against me. No one stuffs strawmen if they think they have the goods.

Back to the point and using the obvious stereotype, not every obsessive grades type person who puts the pursuit of academic scores above all else and who achieves said scores will end up being more valued in a corporate or other life settings than those far less educated but far more well rounded.

I know that TRUTH irks some of the less secure amongst the 'well educated' who want to believe they have achieved some unassailable measure but it simply is not true and all thu the work world that plays out and also in the general life world where many a genius social misfit cannot even cook their own meals without help.

but hurr durr e_d has a test you need to take as nothing else will matter and all will be hand waved away as if meaningless.

(also incoming Trolly dismissal in 3.. 2... 1...)

It add weights to the 'splitting the bill' theory

I don't really dispute his stance on that test. I'm Just saying that if your score is 20 but can come up with a new proof of the Pythagorean Theorem a lot quicker than someone who scores 40, you are "smarter".