10 Matching Annotations
  1. Sep 2023
    1. Many people are frightened of mathematics and thinkthey cannot read it at all. No one is quite sure why this is so.Some psychologists think there is such a thing as "symbolblindness"-the inability to set aside one's dependence on theconcrete and to follow the controlled shifting of symbols.
  2. Jul 2023
    1. Both the cult of learning around Dante and the cult ofignorance around Newton are phenomena of the vicious spe-cialization of scholarship.

      p. xxiv

      Hutchins seems to indicate that the "vicious specialization of scholarship" is in part to blame for the emergence of the "two cultures" delineated by C. P. Snow later in the decade.

  3. Sep 2022
    1. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=math+demystified&i=stripbooks&crid=UM15P2ZTY84C&sprefix=math+demystified%2Cstripbooks%2C137&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

      A whole series of books from McGraw Hill whose titles all carry an implicit math shaming. Who wants to carry these books around and be seen reading them? Even the word DeMYSTiFieD on the cover is written in CLoWn case.

      • Business Math Demystified
      • Dosage Calculations and Basic Math for Nurses Demystified
      • Geometry Demystified
      • Business Calculus Demystified
      • Math Word Problems Demystified
      • Everyday Math Demystified
      • Discrete Mathematics Demystified
      • Math Proofs Demystified
      • Pre-Algebra Demystified
  4. Jul 2022
  5. Apr 2022
    1. While it was once regarded as a low-level, “primitive” instinct, researchers arecoming to recognize that imitation—at least as practiced by humans, includingvery young ones—is a complex and sophisticated capacity. Although non-humananimals do imitate, their mimicry differs in important ways from ours. Forexample, young humans’ copying is unique in that children are quite selectiveabout whom they choose to imitate. Even preschoolers prefer to imitate peoplewho have shown themselves to be knowledgeable and competent. Researchshows that while toddlers will choose to copy their mothers rather than a personthey’ve just met, as children grow older they become increasingly willing tocopy a stranger if the stranger appears to have special expertise. By the time achild reaches age seven, Mom no longer knows best.

      Studies have shown that humans are highly selective about whom they choose to imitate. Children up to age seven show a propensity to imitate their parents over strangers and after that they primarily imitate people who have shown themselves to be knowledgeable and competent within an area of expertise.


      This has applications to teaching with respect to math shaming. A teacher who says that math is personally hard for them is likely to be signaling to students that what they're teaching is not based on experience and expertise and thus demotivating the student from following and imitating their example.

  6. Jan 2022
  7. Sep 2021
    1. We teachers can help our students with this. Let them know when the most difficult work is coming. Help them prepare for that work, then admit that the challenge is real and it is difficult.

      But let's also be aware of the all-too-prevalent math shaming that occurs when we say "math is difficult". That definitely isn't productive.

  8. Dec 2020
    1. Ergodic theory is a forbiddingly technical branch of mathematics.

      It's supremely sad that a paper in Nature should "math shame" ergodic theory this way. What the hell is going on?