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To: .cnI redruM
Mathematicians and scientists by into this pernicious myth because it boosts their egos. They therefore think they are something they are not, and that's how scientism gets started.

Mathematics is "hard" because it takes discipline. It's not a subject where you can "baffle 'em with BS". I always did bad in math until I got to college and realized I actually had to study and work example problems. Once I got the basics down, I started getting A's and made it all the way through Calc 3. If someone told me when I was in high school that I could take (let alone understand) higher math I would have thought they were nuts.

5 posted on 05/15/2006 5:41:10 AM PDT by Hacksaw (Deport illegals the same way they came here - one at a time.)
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To: Hacksaw

I am glad to read that you're beyond your need for 'science courses', though I believe it a way of life. Instead I'll suggest engaging in the Science Wars and reading the genre of literature epitomized by Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt's works, including Higher Superstition: The Academic Left's Quarrels with Science (JHU, Baltimore, 1998, ISBN 0-8018-5707-4) and The Flight From Science and Reason (NYAS, NY, 1997, ISBN 0-8018-5676-0). The bibliographies will suggest titles to appeal to your particular bent. Also Alan Sokal's seminal essay and foreign literature. Maybe The Bell Curve too? Tagline


6 posted on 05/15/2006 6:16:32 AM PDT by dhuffman@awod.com (The conspiracy of ignorance masquerades as common sense.)
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To: Hacksaw

It's like hitting a curve ball. I used to teach high school algebra and used this as an analogy. I compared doing your homework to taking your daily batting practice if you played baseball.


7 posted on 05/15/2006 6:21:32 AM PDT by .cnI redruM (Watching the Left turn on Senator McCain amuses me somehow....)
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To: Hacksaw

Same here for math. I never took Trig because I had such rotten math teachers for Algebra and Geometry. It was a college prof that finally explained it in a way that made sense. I also passed 3 semsters of Calc. Never would have dreamed it in a million years.


8 posted on 05/15/2006 6:34:36 AM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Hacksaw
When referring to science and math as "hard", the meaning above was not that they are "difficult to learn", but that they are normative.

The opposite of being "hard" in this sense would be "relative": the hogwash notion that something might be "true for you" but not "true for me."

Don't get me started on THAT one.

14 posted on 05/15/2006 6:53:18 AM PDT by thulldud ("Muslim Community Leaders Warn of Backlash from Tomorrow's Terrorist Attack")
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