numbers don’t lie @mathematicallybrunette - Tumblr Blog

pastperfectcontinuous

Jeanette Winterson, Art Objects: Essays on Ecstacy and Effrontery

petrichorals

it has in it warnings and chances and painful beauty

#Will make for my ears and eyes what was the property of the hawk.

allhailthe70shousewife

hackernewsrobot

A Mathematician's Lament – Paul Lockhart (2002) [pdf]

https://worrydream.com/refs/Lockhart_2002_-_A_Mathematician%27s_Lament.pdf

#Burn Math Class

thoughtstherapy

plasmafrag

I’m not making it my mission to fix it since there are those who’ve already made that their ministry and are incredibly undervalued… I just want to learn all I can and Understand.

I finally bought Burn Math Class by Jason Wilkes. I find myself taken by how math is taught versus how it’s used and understood.

#I’m also reading a pre-algebra textbook to remember how they start us off

weavingcloth

luulapants

Story time:

In middle school biology, we did an experiment. We were given yams, which we would sprout in cups of water. We then had to make hypotheses about how the yams would grow, based on descriptions of yam plants in our books, and make notes of our observations as they grew.

Here’s what was supposed to happen: we were supposed to see that the actual growth of the plant did not resemble our hypotheses. We were then supposed to figure out that these were, in fact, sweet potatoes.

What actually happened was that every single student in every single class lied in their notes so that their observations perfectly matched their hypotheses. See, everyone assumed the mismatch meant they had done something wrong in the process of growing the plant or that they had misunderstood the dichotomous key or the plant identification terminology. And, thanks to the wonders of a public school education, everyone assumed the wrong results would get us a failing grade. We were trying to pass. We didn’t want to get bitched out by the teacher. Curiosity, learning, science - that had nothing to do with why we were sitting in that classroom. So we all lied.

The teacher was furious. She tried to fail every student, but the administration stepped in and told her she wasn’t allowed to because a 100% fail rate is recognized as a failure of the teacher, not the class. It wasn’t even her fault, really, though her being a notorious hard-ass didn’t help. It was a failure of the entire educational system.

So whenever I see crap like Elizabeth Holmes’s blood test scam or pharmaceutical trials which are unable to be replicated or industry-funded research that reaches wildly unscientific conclusions, I just remember those fucking sweet potatoes. I remember that curiosity dies when people are just trying to give their superiors the “right” answers, so they can get the grade, get the job, get the paycheck. It’s not about truth when it’s about paying rent. There’s no scientific integrity if you can’t control for human desperation.

Chase Infinity would be a lovely name for a daughter I’d raise to be an astrophysicist.