Re: post prandial indicator 1,5 anhydroglucitol

Michelle C. <michelle_of_the_desert@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Susan wrote:
x-no-archive: yes

Michelle C. wrote:

Totally agree. Although I've always loved science (blessed to have
good teachers?), the math that should accompany it was often difficult
for me. In algebra, I could work the equations and had a good enough
memory to get good grades on the exams, but without any practical
applications, I always thought to myself, "Who cares what x equals?
It's meaningless." Then I took chemistry and we used lots of algebra.
Ah-ha! The x's mean something. Much better. At about the same time
I again took algebra in college, and had a really terrific teacher.
It dawned on me that part of my problem with math had been the
teachers. I'd had a series of pretty poor ones starting in junior high
and never realized it. My enthusiasm for increased, however, I could
never completely get by the feeling that it was somehow difficult
because I'd felt that way for so long.

I could do logic in a hearbeat, and geometry, but never algebra. It was
a language I could not learn to speak. My ex was a math grad student
with superb student evals. One said "he could teach linear algebra to a
brain dead monkey."

Right.

But not to ME. :-)

Susan

In my opinion, algebra, to be fully understood, must be taught in the
context of practical application. I learned to do algebra in chemistry
and I learned to trigonometry in physics. After that, the straight
algebra and trig classes were moot. I believe that not experiencing the
practical application of the math is why so many struggle with it. (Of
course there are those who are particularly gifted like you ex.)

I agree. I found algebra very hard to understand until the physics
classes started using it. Seeing how it could be used in practical
applications gave me the intuitions that made sense of it. With the
physical intuitions it was easy to understand. Without them it made no
sense and my brain revolted against it. My maths teacher thought this
indicated that I was too stupid to understand pure maths and needed a
mental crutch. He was very annoyed when I later won the maths prize
:-)

--
Chris Malcolm
.

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