More interview questions

[chickenfeet]

frankie_ecap asked:

1) How do you think your political beliefs were formed?

Half sense of justice, half chip on shoulder? I'm two generations removed from the industrial working class. Both my parents went to grammar school but left school at 16. One of my grandfathers left school at 11 to be a slaughterman's boy, one of my great grandfathers walked from Essex to Manchester to find work during the depression of the 1880s. By dint of various scholarships and grants I went to a public school and a good university so, by and large, I spent my teenage years with people who were much wealthier than my family. They weren't any brighter or any harder working than the kids I had gone to school with in classes of 45 five year olds in Bradford in a school next to a stinking chip factory but the world was built around them. I hadn't heard Leon Rosselson's Palaces of Gold then (maybe he hadn't written it yet) but I can relate to it well enough. Add to that that the country was going to hell in a handbasket. In the first 25 years of my life unemployment went from essentially nil to three million and the north of England was destroyed as an economic entity. Surely, my teenage self, said, there was a better way?

Somewhere along the line the vague aspirations and resentments coalesced into some sort of ideology helped by some quite fantastic people, notably wandra's parents.

2) What's your answer to the maths ed question? If you were in charge, what would you change about it and how would you go about it?

I really don't know. I think a large part of it must be getting mathematicians (not BEds with a working, or not so working, knowledge of elementary maths) into the classroom earlier to try and communicate the beauty and excitement of the subject. In practical terms I guess that means roving maths specialists who really know their stuff. Maybe this could be linked to my other pet educational idea of closing half the universities and putting the money into early childhood and primary education.

I also like melted_snowball's idea of teaching probability through discovery to help kids understand why math matters.

Finally, I wouldn't mind making the university entrance standard more like Germany where a decent level of mathematical competence is required whatever one is going to study later. It's amazing how much better people perform when they have to.

3) How did you and lemur_catta meet?

For lots of reasons I'll answer that in email.

4) How did you come to learn to cook?

Osmosis. My mother taught cookery to adults. I had to feed myself at university. I spent time in the food industry (really useful training in how food works from a physical and chemical pov). I spent years on the road eating in good restaurants. I like food. I like to cook. So, summing up, I've been exposed to a lot of excellent influences and I have a theoretical framework to relate to. The rest is practice.

5) What do you think was your most formative experience and why?

I don't think there has ever been a "Road to Damascus" moment. To quote a mutual friend, "It's always more complicated".

Comments

[helianthas.livejournal.com]

aw i want to know #3 also.
dirtydina at livejournal.com

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

X was very good at probability, and did rather badly in his maths classes. He claims that it was all down to betting parlours.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how many people who "can't do maths" can figure out the cumulative odds on some insanely complex multiple bet.

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

When my ex-boyfriend the compulsive gambler got a job as head of IT for one of the largest organisations in the country, my first response was 'but A. can't even do percentages'!

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

X is also a programmer! And he can add and subtract in his head like nobody's business. That's from darts. Apparently, he was ranked 4th in Germany before he somehow lost all ability to play competitively. Sorry. I just think that's kinda cool. Especially as he's not built like a darts player.

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

Darts! Yes, that is incredibly cool.

He might well have been taught maths very badly. I recently ranted in my journal about this as part of a post of great length, so don't for goodness sake both to go through and find it, but there is a lot of it out there.

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

I know I was badly taught. I had a horrible time -- My math skills are like my language skills -- I can pick up math and often get the right answer, but not for knowing what I'm doing. It's more an unconscious feel for it.

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

Then you'd probably have been pretty good at it. How absolutely maddening for you.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

By dint of various scholarships and grants I went to a public school and a good university so, by and large, I spent my teenage years with people who were much wealthier than my family. They weren't any brighter or any harder working than the kids I had gone to school with in classes of 45 five year olds in Bradford in a school next to a stinking chip factory but the world was built around them.

But in the end, you did get where you wanted to. I've always felt that Britain, which supposedly has a vivid class system whereas we French are more egalitarian, etc., enjoys in fact a good deal more social mobility than us.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Damning with faint praise? France is more class ridden than just about anywhere I ever been.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Ah, you feel it too, right? And here if you're not a card-carrying member of the Nomenklatura (ENA, Polytechnique, etc.), you will NEVER have any power at ALL.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. And if "they" don't feel you have the right connections to "benefit" from the ENA experience you won't get in anyway.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Teaching probability and stats is a funny one. We all think it is done badly (and I have had it done to me badly several times), but people also have an instinctive grasp of what it takes. For instance, everyone who cooks will sample the food before seasoning or to work out if it is cooked: and this is simply a statistical experiment!

The moment things are quantified, they seem to get more complex.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I know, and people don't seem to have any difficulty with odds when it comes to betting but present them with something like the Lancet paper on civilian deaths in Iraq and they immediately go "so you can't actually be sure?".

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

Finally, I wouldn't mind making the university entrance standard more like Germany where a decent level of mathematical competence is required whatever one is going to study later. It's amazing how much better people perform when they have to.

This is a great point. In the UK this is only required for professions that are pre-labelled as middle-class, so the social discourse of maths kicks in once again.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

An interesting point but what part of university isn't aimed at the middle class (except Estate Management at Oxford)?

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

In the UK, in this day and age, a fair chunk. Whether this is a good thing is another discussion entirely.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

for instance?