I had horrible algebra teachers in high school and barely passed, but still had no understanding of algebra. Years later I took algebra in community college taught by a retired high school teacher.
The man was a genius at making algebra simple and accessible to me.
You might find it incredible, but I first learned about order of operations from him…Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.
…Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.
“The problem with PEMDAS is that it excludes the “from left to right” requirement for multiplication and division (#3 below) and addition and subtraction (#4 below). Students, as a result, think multiplication always precedes division and addition always precedes subtraction. This explains why students in the above example said 4 – 2 + 1 equals 1 rather than 3 (i.e., they simplified 2 + 1 first rather than 4 – 2).”
I had similar problems with math in high school. I tried college twice, once at Northern Virginia Community College (where I mainly paid attention to the female students) and later on at UNH, where I at least learned to speak Japanese. I learned algebra in an apprenticeship program. It turned out it was much easier to learn if I was paid to study and would be fired if I didn’t. I think that’s a clue for how educaton might be made to work better.
Our one-size fits all math curriculum is a disaster. IMO many people can’t really process abstract operations until their early teens… Or late teens. A few oddballs are ready for it as soon as they learn to read. But we push them all through the same 40th-percentile assembly line.
The prodigies are bored witless and the late bloomers are scarred for life “I’m bad at math”.
I will also laud community colleges. After getting kicked out of UT Austin twice (ahhh…Austin in the 80s…), I moved up north, refocused, and ended up with an Associate of Science in Liberal Arts & Sciences, General Studies, International Business Concentration. With distinction.
I tell my guys get your Associates first, knock out the basics and electives for a much more reasonable cost, then transfer to the big school for the expensive core classes. The main drawbacks are that you are unlikely to make the kinds of early links and connections that may be necessary for a career to flourish.
It’s Who You Know. Period. Merit means nothing, knowledge means nothing. Networking is everything. And if you want to really get ahead nowadays, you also have to be compromised in some way so that you can be controlled. That’s when the fun really starts. Exhibit A is Washington, D.C.
One acquaintance of mine in college – back in the 70’s – did exactly that – 2 years at a community college and then 2 years at the university.
I saw, back then, the benefits of doing it that way and it makes even more sense now.
Though it was not where the author was heading, community colleges also tend to offer vocational courses, which can be life-changing if done right and help the community far more than any army of activists. Mike Rowe and all that.
What Mike Rowe does not say is that, like engineers, good tradesmen quickly reach a point where they must either accept stagnating pay and treatment or become managers or owners.
I went free lance, which is a species of owner.
Stagnating pay? My wife and I run a home heating company. With winter overtime, most of the techs will be in six figures for the year. And only an idiot mistreats his technical staff when few are going into the field.
Earning more money by working more hours is not the opposite of stagnating pay. The problem for technicians and mechanics nowadays is, there’s no path for advancment, other than going into business for yourself.
There are vocational-technical community colleges too. I took welding courses at Portsmouth Voc-Tec in NH, just as a jobskills enhancement when I was an auto mechanic, way back when.
I had horrible algebra teachers in high school and barely passed, but still had no understanding of algebra. Years later I took algebra in community college taught by a retired high school teacher.
The man was a genius at making algebra simple and accessible to me.
You might find it incredible, but I first learned about order of operations from him…Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.
…Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.
“The problem with PEMDAS is that it excludes the “from left to right” requirement for multiplication and division (#3 below) and addition and subtraction (#4 below). Students, as a result, think multiplication always precedes division and addition always precedes subtraction. This explains why students in the above example said 4 – 2 + 1 equals 1 rather than 3 (i.e., they simplified 2 + 1 first rather than 4 – 2).”
I had similar problems with math in high school. I tried college twice, once at Northern Virginia Community College (where I mainly paid attention to the female students) and later on at UNH, where I at least learned to speak Japanese. I learned algebra in an apprenticeship program. It turned out it was much easier to learn if I was paid to study and would be fired if I didn’t. I think that’s a clue for how educaton might be made to work better.
Our one-size fits all math curriculum is a disaster. IMO many people can’t really process abstract operations until their early teens… Or late teens. A few oddballs are ready for it as soon as they learn to read. But we push them all through the same 40th-percentile assembly line.
The prodigies are bored witless and the late bloomers are scarred for life “I’m bad at math”.
I will also laud community colleges. After getting kicked out of UT Austin twice (ahhh…Austin in the 80s…), I moved up north, refocused, and ended up with an Associate of Science in Liberal Arts & Sciences, General Studies, International Business Concentration. With distinction.
I tell my guys get your Associates first, knock out the basics and electives for a much more reasonable cost, then transfer to the big school for the expensive core classes. The main drawbacks are that you are unlikely to make the kinds of early links and connections that may be necessary for a career to flourish.
It’s Who You Know. Period. Merit means nothing, knowledge means nothing. Networking is everything. And if you want to really get ahead nowadays, you also have to be compromised in some way so that you can be controlled. That’s when the fun really starts. Exhibit A is Washington, D.C.
One acquaintance of mine in college – back in the 70’s – did exactly that – 2 years at a community college and then 2 years at the university.
I saw, back then, the benefits of doing it that way and it makes even more sense now.
Though it was not where the author was heading, community colleges also tend to offer vocational courses, which can be life-changing if done right and help the community far more than any army of activists. Mike Rowe and all that.
What Mike Rowe does not say is that, like engineers, good tradesmen quickly reach a point where they must either accept stagnating pay and treatment or become managers or owners.
I went free lance, which is a species of owner.
Stagnating pay? My wife and I run a home heating company. With winter overtime, most of the techs will be in six figures for the year. And only an idiot mistreats his technical staff when few are going into the field.
Earning more money by working more hours is not the opposite of stagnating pay. The problem for technicians and mechanics nowadays is, there’s no path for advancment, other than going into business for yourself.
There are vocational-technical community colleges too. I took welding courses at Portsmouth Voc-Tec in NH, just as a jobskills enhancement when I was an auto mechanic, way back when.