Time for a poll

[chickenfeet]

I needed an excuse to use the user pic voted most popular by a random sample of sentient beings. I've also had some interesting on and off line convos and comments about math(s) recently so I thought what we really need is more ticky boxes. Lo, I bring you the great math(s) poll!

[Poll #826509]

Comments

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

I'm in a quandary about maths. I've always been crap at them. Part of this was that, as a child I went from a school system where we were doing "new Math" (the 4th-grade book had sets on the cover, and we were taught all about sets and different mathematical properties ...) to a school system where we were expected to have learned all the traditional stuff. Part of it was that I spent most of the time I could get away with it in the back of the room reading while the teacher was talking (I failed math one half-term, because I'd not done any homework -- I still passed all the tests). But I think most of it was that no one ever explained things to me in a way that I understood the point OR what I was trying to do. I found geometry easier than algebra, because I could 'see' it -- and even then, I had problems with the formulae.

Oddly, when I was in grad school, I realized one day (when waitressing and dividing a very complex multi-party check) that I was actually doing algebra. I re-learned a lot of basic arithmetic then as well-- weighing grades means arithmetic! And when the kid had algebra, and needed help with her homework, the first year or so made lots of sense to me, although her teacher and I differed on the best way to do things (I took out steps). SO ... long story, I know --- I now really wish I'd done mote maths, with good teachers, because they make much more sense to me now.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I guess I was pretty lucky with teachers though to be honest, beyond learning to read and write, I'm not convinced I learned anything much at elementary school. I can certainly remember quite precisely the point at which I grasped that there was something more to mathematics than puzzle solving (though I was damn good at that - I scored 100% on both the Common Entrance maths papers). It would have been in my first year in the Upper School (ie I'd just turned 13). I got my hands on a copy of Edwin Abbott's Flatland and I was hooked. I wonder how many budding mathematicians have been similarly snared by that slim but venerable volume.