Timeline for How to respond to "I was never much good at maths at school." [closed]
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
32 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 22, 2015 at 17:36 | comment | added | isomorphismes | Introducing oneself by topic area rather than "mathematician" can head off unpleasantries. If you say "I work on Wada basins" the other person will say "What's that?" rather than remember back to classroom torture. | |
| Mar 1, 2015 at 14:52 | comment | added | Włodzimierz Holsztyński | The answer is: indeed, they don't teach mathematics well at school. An equally common comment from a fellow passenger or similar would be: I was always stupid in math. The answer is the same. People say that feel stupid in math, while inside themselves they know that mathematics is taught stupidly, or more so: that mathematics is stupid (not them). For instance, when students skip classes to play card games which require adding/subtracting integers, they never have any problem. But to learn negative numbers at school is next to impossible. | |
| Feb 15, 2014 at 8:47 | comment | added | isomorphismes | The stronger I bear in mind that my goal is to connect with someone and not to defend maths, the better I do. I look for any possible response except disagreeing with them. Also—someone who hates "maths" doesn't hate "representation theory" or "topology". "I think about knots all day" sounds much better than "Every day of my life is like the homework you hated". If it must be broached, I would emphasise the total lack of overlap between what I love and what they were forced to do as a youth. | |
| Sep 11, 2013 at 13:04 | review | Reopen votes | |||
| Sep 11, 2013 at 13:06 | |||||
| Jan 3, 2011 at 1:31 | comment | added | Dr Shello | Or add answers as comments, I suppose... | |
| Jan 3, 2011 at 1:29 | comment | added | Dr Shello | What do we do if we have something to add - repost? | |
| Feb 11, 2010 at 5:00 | comment | added | Pete L. Clark | I have closed the question. I think it has run its course, and for MO to succeed we need to continually move ahead to new questions. | |
| Feb 11, 2010 at 4:58 | history | closed |
Andrew Stacey user350 Charles Siegel Kevin H. Lin Pete L. Clark |
no longer relevant | |
| Feb 7, 2010 at 8:52 | answer | added | Holzinger Raphael | timeline score: 4 | |
| Nov 20, 2009 at 6:38 | answer | added | Theo Johnson-Freyd | timeline score: 62 | |
| Nov 18, 2009 at 15:31 | answer | added | Wlog | timeline score: 3 | |
| Nov 18, 2009 at 7:15 | answer | added | Greg Kuperberg | timeline score: 25 | |
| Nov 16, 2009 at 12:20 | answer | added | Philip Brooker | timeline score: 6 | |
| Nov 16, 2009 at 3:13 | answer | added | Harrison Brown | timeline score: 11 | |
| Nov 16, 2009 at 1:36 | answer | added | Darsh Ranjan | timeline score: 22 | |
| Nov 16, 2009 at 0:53 | answer | added | Minhyong Kim | timeline score: 53 | |
| Nov 15, 2009 at 0:13 | answer | added | Elisha Peterson | timeline score: 9 | |
| Nov 14, 2009 at 15:04 | answer | added | Harry Gindi | timeline score: 14 | |
| Nov 14, 2009 at 10:26 | answer | added | QPeng | timeline score: 3 | |
| Nov 14, 2009 at 9:28 | answer | added | Georg M. | timeline score: 4 | |
| Nov 14, 2009 at 3:14 | answer | added | Michael Hoffman | timeline score: 8 | |
| Nov 13, 2009 at 19:00 | answer | added | Dmitri Panov | timeline score: 22 | |
| Nov 13, 2009 at 18:43 | answer | added | Anton Geraschenko | timeline score: 61 | |
| Nov 13, 2009 at 18:30 | history | edited | Anton Geraschenko | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
added 28 characters in body; edited title
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| Nov 13, 2009 at 18:28 | answer | added | JB King | timeline score: 8 | |
| Nov 13, 2009 at 17:12 | answer | added | MLevi | timeline score: 8 | |
| Nov 13, 2009 at 15:04 | answer | added | John Goodrick | timeline score: 3 | |
| Nov 13, 2009 at 14:57 | answer | added | user1241 | timeline score: 38 | |
| Nov 13, 2009 at 14:53 | answer | added | Thomas Riepe | timeline score: 5 | |
| Nov 13, 2009 at 14:51 | answer | added | Scott Carter | timeline score: 8 | |
| Nov 13, 2009 at 14:42 | answer | added | Jon Awbrey | timeline score: 26 | |
| Nov 13, 2009 at 14:39 | history | asked | Andrew Stacey | CC BY-SA 2.5 |