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Reality and Sanity

June 12, 2007

How Far The Bobbies Have Fallen

Filed under: Stupid People Tricks — Paul @ 5:50 pm

From Reason’s Brickbats, emphasis mine:

British car theft victims have been told they must pay the police at least £105 if they want them to actually check it for evidence. In theory, the charge is for storage after it is found, but only those who pay it are assured the police will dust it for fingerprints or check for DNA or other evidence.

Submitted with only this comment: The British police force, once the envy of the world, are now a disgrace, unwilling to prosecute entire classes of crime.

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What a babe

LONDON: Marylebone

Sheila Gomez is one RED HOT German model that is considerably much more than just a pretty body, face, eyes, hair, legs, you get the picture…  Originally from Bonn, she travels the world via her modeling career and shares some of her experiences with REDHOT-SOCIETY.  We recently asked her “how she started out” in modeling.

“I was born in Bonn, a university town in Germany and the former capital of it. During my time at university, I lived in Cologne, Düsseldorf and San Francisco, as well as a couple of months in Florida and in a little city called Harwich – close to Boston. My father is originally from India and my mom is from Germany.

What brought me to the modeling world? Good questions☺. To be honest I wasn’t a big fan of the modeling world in the past. First, I studied business law and worked in the area of white collar crime after passing my exam. Afterwards I started a second study in pedagogy, which I also finished.  I also attended some courses at Stanford University in California.

A photographer, asked me one day why I wasn’t modelling. He told me there were good agencies and I could travel the world while earning income. He gave me a list of some contacts.

The next day I sent applications to agencies and received a positive feedback.  After a couple of months I  established clients, which booked me regularly. I expanded my agency network through Europe and now I love my job more than I could imagine. I feel blessed to have an opportunity to work in so many wonderful countries with wonderful and inspiring people.”

What category of model do you consider yourself? Fashion, Swimwear, Commercial?

“Most of the time I work in the commercial sector, print and spots. I do a lot of fitness shoots as well as swimwear and lingerie. Sometimes there are also clients which book me for fashion jobs, catwalk and shooting. But my main sector are commercials. In the past I was able to be cast for different roles, from the young sportive girl to being a mom on a set.”

What is your personal fashion style?  Elegance, comfort, sport?

“I have all different styles in my closet, from sportive, to fancy black dresses to casual clothes and all price ranges. I like to mix up things from Zara, H&M with my favorite designer pieces. My personal fashion style depends on my daily mood ☺. Sometimes I wake up and I feel like dressing up for the day, then I put on a nice dress with some high heels, I do my hair and makeup. On other days I wake up and feel like wearing boyfriend jeans, some comfortable sneakers and an oversize shirt with a ponytail. So I have different style for different days and moods.”

What does your diet and exercise routine look like?

“I have a strict diet which I follow. I try not to eat sugar, bad carbs and I do not drink alcohol. Once in a while I have days which I do not feel like following these food habits, so I eat pasta, chocolate, french fries etc. I try not to forbid myself from eating, but I recognized that some foods are not good for me and my body, because I have the feeling of less energy after eating them, so I try to avoid these. I try to cook as much as possible, because then I know what is in it and can choose the ingredients myself. When I travel I try to prepare my food, so I do not have to eat outside. Especially at airports and train stations, it is sometimes difficult to find healthy foods, so it is better to  be prepared. I always have almonds and some chopped fruits and vegetables with me.

For my exercise habits, I try to work out 5 to 6 times a week with challenging units. I do different exercises in every session, so my body does not get used to them and I challenge myself every week. It is a mix between a high intensity training and some jogging, swimming and biking.”

Favorite desserts, that diet “cheat”?

“My favorite desserts are warm chocolate cake with ice cream and hot chocolate with whipped cream. However I cannot eat this every day and staying in shape at the same time. So my regular dessert is a Greek yogurt with berries and honey.”

Aspects of modeling you enjoy?

“I really love the travelling and also enjoy to work with people who have a passion for their work. The pay is also a positive side effect. I see this job as a gift to meet amazing people, travel the world and to save some money while doing so.”

Aspects of modeling you don’t like?

“One of the things I do not like about the modeling business are last minutes calls. You are not able to plan anything and have to be 100% flexible.

The other thing that I do not like is meeting arrogant people who do not treat others the way they deserve to be treated. I don’t cluster or judge people by their profession, physical appearance, age or education. I treat all people the same. Some girls, and this is just a SMALL percentage of the whole group, think that they are better than others. They think they do not have to clean up their mess, can treat people like they want and do not have to lift a finger for others. I was not raised like this.  My parents always told me to treat all people the same. Also I did a lot of NORMAL jobs in the past to finance my studies. I worked in a kitchen and washed up plates. I worked as a waitress and I also worked a long time in retail. So I know exactly how it is to really work for little money.  If I can help my crew on the set I will empty the trash can as well as wash up their plates. I never feel and I will never feel to GOOD or BETTER for a job. It’s all about teamwork and every member of the shooting team counts the same. This is what should be in every persons mind, not only in the modeling business.”

Hours of sleep per night?

“I try to sleep between seven and eight hours. However this is not always possible and in addition to the lack of time I sometimes have trouble falling asleep, because I go over the whole day again before bed and that makes it sometimes difficult to adjust into a relaxing sleep mood.”

Definition of a GOOD model vs. a BAD model?

“A GOOD model is for me a person who is always on time, does not complain about weather conditions during a shoot or overtime hours. We can just be thankful that we have opportunity to do the job. Other people have to work much longer and sometimes harder for the same amount of money that we earn in one day. I do not want to say that modelling is always easy when you have to be outside wearing summer clothes during winter weather at freezing temperatures. It is one not-so-comfortable part of our job we have to live with.

So my motto is do not complain and be grateful for what you have. It is also important never to lose focus on real important things in life. I mean it is not all about hair, make up, staying in shape, expensive clothes, parties and being the most beautiful one on the spot. For me it is also important, and this is the feedback I also get from different clients, is to have a powerful personality, which is filled with intelligence, grace and respect. This is also an important part for being a GOOD model.”

Any plans for acting?

“A couple weeks ago I started taking acting classes. Becoming better in acting is one of my future goals as it is especially important for TV commercials. Models are often in competition with trained actors and it could be a big benefit for a model to become more experienced in this field.”

Sheila Gomez full of surprises.  Highly educated and gracious.  We hope to meet more beauties with brains and class in her field.

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Streetwise George and his big, childlike friend Lennie are drifters, searching for work in the fields and valleys of California. They have nothing except the clothes on their back, and a hope that one day they’ll find a place of their own and live the American dream. But dreams come at a price. Gentle giant Lennie doesn’t know his own strength, and when they find work at a ranch he gets into trouble with the boss’s daughter in law. Trouble so bad that even his protector George may not be able to save him….

Have you ever read a book that’s so simple and barely over a hundred pages long, and yet grips you in such a manner that you are left quite dazed? A book that is quite bitter sweet and leaves you emotionally drained? Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck fits right into such a category, which I have found to be quite rare.

Of Mice And Men tells the story of George Milton and his friend Lennie Small, who are searching for work in the fields of California. George, a quick witted, intelligent yet uneducated and a quite small man is Lennie’s best friend and guardian. Lennie, contrastingly  is mentally challenged, huge and unaware of his own strength. All the duo want is to achieve their dream, which is to own a piece of land. And for Lennie, it is much simpler in that he just wants to pet rabbits. Their life takes a new turn when they get a work in a ranch, when for once again Lennie’s love for anything soft gets him in trouble, but for worse.

As soon as I started the book, I immediately fell in love with the characters, especially their friendship. There are numerous instances where George is quite annoyed with Lennie’s inability to remember things and follow instructions, yet he always looks after Lennie. And Lennie sincerely and most innocently tries his level best to make his best friend happy.

There is so much you can learn from this book, in spite of it being quite short. It teaches you about friendship that is quite pure and innocent and the power and beauty in the simplest dreams of life, among other things. First published in 1937,the book takes the reader through a short yet enlightening journey through a time of social discrimination and the great depression in the US.

This is one book that doesn’t have anything too much or too less,and I honestly feel that everyone has to read it at least once in their lifetime. It doesn’t matter what genre you love or whether you are a non reader, this is a must read.


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Recent Articles

Sandy, Linux, Michigan, Food, GMail, More: Morning Buzz, October 28, 2012

The Washington Post offers 7 apps to get you through Hurricane Sandy.

Larry Ferlazzo has started a Hurricane Sandy resource list. Here’s another one from Laughing Squid.

Speaking of Sandy, Google has cancelled Monday’s Nexus event because of the weather. “The waterfront pier where the event had been scheduled is now in an evacuation zone.” o_O (There have actually been plenty of cancels — Dear Myrtle has has rescheduled a couple of webinars as well.)

Ooh, I need to hang on to this article: The best free tools for creating a bootable Windows or Linux USB drive.

The National Institutes of Health have established a Down syndrome patient registry.

Interesting. The state of Michigan is offering online training to poll workers via YouTube.

Wow, a Wikipedia for food? Brief story about BulliPedia. “It could be described as a great many things: a virtual research and development center for chefs; an online food encyclopedia; a web-based think thank; and a crowd-sourced database of culinary ideas from some of the greatest chef-minds around the world.”

Encrypting GMail with SafeGMail, a Chrome extension.

I do try to stay apolitical on ResearchBuzz, but I must admit, I love the idea of an RC airplane made from political signs. Good morning, Internet…

About ResearchBuzz (3244 Articles)
News and resources covering social media, search engines, databases, archives, and other such online information collections. Since 1998.

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This is a followup to Pattern Breaking.

Since I got interested in apparent patterns that break later on, I’ve discovered an article on this very subject by Richard K. Guy, published in the American Mathematical Monthly over 20 years ago! Also, Justin Lanier has directed me to a discussion on this topic at MathOverflow with many more examples. Lastly, I’ve got a solution to the computational half of the problem that many of the examples found in these sources are not conceptually or computationally accessible at the secondary level. Namely, I’ve come across a couple of computational resources that might help to bring some of these examples (especially the ones involving primes) within striking distance of a lesson you might create at the middle or high school level.

The article is called “The Strong Law of Small Numbers” and is found in Vol. 95, No. 8 (Oct., 1988) of the AMM. Here it is as a pdf. It is somewhat silly in tone, but it is actually more academically serious than anything else I’ve pointed you to thus far. Here is how it starts:

This article is in two parts, the first of which is a do-it-yourself operation, in which I’ll show you 35 examples of patterns that seem to appear when we look at several small values of n… The question will be, in each case: do you think that the pattern persists for all n, or do you believe that it is a figment of the smallness of the values of n that are worked out in the examples?

Caution: examples of both kids appear; they are not all figments!

In the second part I’ll give you the answers, insofar as I know them, together with references. (p. 697)

The compendium of patterns is excellent. Credit where credit is due: some of my favorites so far, e.g.

The points on a circle pattern;
The fact that 31, 331, 3331, …, 3333331 are all prime;
The fact that 3!-2!+1!, 4!-3!+2!-1!, …, 8!-7!+…+2!-1! are all prime

were in this article before they were anywhere else I’ve found them. In addition, Guy has interesting commentary on what’s going on – for example, he offers some insight regarding why the points-on-a-circle pattern matches the powers of 2 in the first 5 cases and then breaks.

Now, I became interested in these pseudo-patterns because I think they’re pedagogically important. Guy has a different angle: he is actually trying to say something about math. In his view, pseudo-patterns like this are quite common, because of his eponymous “Strong Law of Small Numbers”:

There aren’t enough small numbers to meet the many demands made of them (p. 698)

It’s worth it for you to download the pdf. The article is a good and enlightening read all the way through. I’ll share one more pattern (or almost-pattern? which is it??) from it but really I recommend downloading the whole thing.

Example 24. Consider the sequence
x_0=1, x_{n+1}=(1+x_0^2+x_1^2+\cdots+x_n^2)/(n+1)

n 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
x_n 1 2 3 5 10 28 154

Is x_n always an integer? (p. 704)

Okay. Secondly. Justin Lanier pointed me to a source of a good many more examples of patterns breaking: a discussion of this very topic at MathOverflow. (This is a link to the Wikipedia article to tell you what MathOverflow is. There is a link to the actual site at the beginning of this post.) Here it is:

MathOverflow: The phenomena of eventual counterexamples

Justin also directed me to a particular link within this discussion:

“Law of Small Numbers”… more examples!

So, here are two more sources for patterns that break. The repository is growing…

Now a drawback of some of Guy’s and many of MathOverflow’s examples are that they are not really accessible at the middle or high school level. Now in some cases this is because of the concepts involved. But in other cases, it’s just a matter of the computations being out of range. For example, Guy mentions a famous example several of us also noted when I first raised the issue: Fermat’s conjecture that 2^{2^n}+1 is always prime. This is true for n=0, 2, 3, 4, and wrong for n=5, but 2^{2^5}+1 is over 4 billion and its smallest prime factor is 641. Not something the kiddies can find out, even with a calculator.

Enter PARI/GP. This is an open-source computer algebra system that does number-theoretic calculations at ludicrous speed. For example, just now I had it execute the following self-explanatory code:

Running on my new MacBook, it produced the output (1,270,607) in about 24 seconds.

In other words, it individually assessed the primality of twenty million numbers, most of them fairly large, in under thirty seconds.

In other words, if you want to do a lesson based on Fermat’s conjecture and want to make it computationally possible, PARI/GP has you covered.

Now it is freely downloadable at the link above. It is not particularly user-friendly, however. Downloading and installing it forced me for the first time to interact with my Mac’s UNIX interface. The installation instructions at the PARI/GP website are not designed to be comprehensible by someone who doesn’t know anything about UNIX. For some reason, no one I asked for help seemed to be 100% able to comprehend the existence of people like me who want to install a piece of software like PARI/GP but don’t know anything about UNIX. I had a lot of trouble getting the answers I needed. The whole experience was pretty frustrating. If you want to download and run this program on a Mac but don’t know how to install something in UNIX, feel free to email me.

Now in order to take PARI/GP into the classroom, if you have a smartboard or projector or something and can get it on one computer, you can do experiments with the whole class. If you want to have the kiddies interact with it, you need it on more than one computer. Also, it doesn’t produce files so to have kids save their work you have to show them how to have it import text from a text editor. All this has to happen in UNIX. This could be a pain.

Enter SAGE. SAGE is another open-source computer algebra system with the following key advantages:
a) You can run the whole thing online!
b) You can save your work online!
c) You can run PARI/GP from inside SAGE!
PARI does not run as fast if you’re using it inside SAGE online as it does if you download and compile it on your computer. Also, SAGE is not the most dependable piece of internet software there is. (It struggles in particular when accessed through Safari. I recommend Firefox.) But, if you want to bring this computational power to the classroom, without requiring any administrators to invest in any piece of software, this is the way to go. All you need is computers with internet access.

If you are having any inklings you’d like to try these resources out in the classroom, I recommend you go play with SAGE right now. Go to the website, click “try SAGE online,” sign up for a new account, and then click “new worksheet.” To access PARI/GP, choose “gp” from the 4th drop-down menu below the worksheet title. (The one whose default is set to “sage.” Btw, PARI is only one of the many amazing computational software packages you can access from inside SAGE. SAGE is kind of its own one, for example. In fact, it can do a lot of what PARI can do. But PARI is faster with the large-scale computations.) You can find users-guide typed materials (none particularly user-friendly, but oh well…) in a link inside the SAGE worksheets. For PARI you can find them on the PARI website. It helps to be familiar with the basic structure of computer programming languages.

Anyway, I think there are a lot of awesome classroom activities waiting to be made out of SAGE and PARI and a few of the pseudopatterns found in the Guy article and at MathOverflow. Here’s one thought, based on a pseudopattern mentioned in Guy (although actually I learned about this example in a workshop led by John Cullinan, which is also where I learned about PARI). Question: how would you turn it into a classroom-able activity at whatever level you teach?

Are there more primes of the form 4k+1 or 4k+3?

(What does this question even mean?)

Just by counting the small cases:
For primes less than 10, one (5) is 4k+1, while two (3 and 7) are 4k+3
For primes less than 30, four (5, 13, 17, 29) are 4k+1, while five (3, 7, 11, 19, 23) are 4k+3
For primes less than 100, I resorted to PARI. I opened a SAGE worksheet, set it to PARI mode (i.e. picked “gp” from that drop-down menu), and entered:

(Some basic syntax info:
*In PARI/GP, everything is really meant to happen on 1 line. Every time you press return, the program executes whatever you entered. If you’re running GP inside SAGE, you use backslashes to split something up over several lines that is really supposed to be 1 line.
*Commands always enclose their arguments in parentheses.
*Use semicolons to separate commands from each other.
*forstep(k=this,that,stepsize,dosuchandsuch) has k count up from this to that by whatever the stepsize and executes suchandsuch for each k.)

Then I entered:

PARI says there are eleven primes less than 100 of the form 4k+1.

PARI says there are thirteen primes less than 100 of the form 4k+3.

So it looks like the 4k+3’s are consistently outnumbering the 4k+1’s. Will this stay true?

How could we find out?

If you want to go experiment on your own, do it.

If you want some guidance, try this code:

This creates a routine that runs through all the odd numbers from 3 to n and asks if they’re prime. If they are, it checks to see if they’re of the form 4k+1 or 4k+3, and keeps track of the totals. If at any point the 4k+1’s are leading, it prints out whatever prime numbers this happened at. (The if command can be either if(condition,dothisthing), or if(condition,dothisthing,andifnotthendothisthing). I’m using it both ways here.) At the end, it prints out the total amount by which the number of 4k+3’s exceeded the number of 4k+1’s.

Okay, now you can play around with it.

More guidance? Alright, but ***SPOILER ALERT***

Have it evaluate:

Yup, in the first 10 numbers, the 4k+3’s are up 1 as we previously counted.

Up 2 now, matching what the One(100) and Three(100) functions told us before.

Up 7 now.

Up 10 now. Aren’t you in suspense?

Up 22 now, but what is that other number it printed out? 26861?

Yes, for one moment, at 26,861, the 4k+1’s take the lead! But 26,863 is prime as well, evening it back out, and then the 4k+3’s retake and stay in the lead all the way to thirty thousand. How crazy is that?

I’m not gonna say anything. Just run it.


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Reality Check: Does Anybody Care What Andrew Hacker Thinks? Monday, Apr 4 2016

So I’m just trying to figure out who, if anybody, cares what Andrew Hacker thinks about math education.

This is an earnest question.

At least since 2012, when he had an opinion piece in the NYT, he has been going on about how we should stop requiring “advanced” math, from algebra up, in schools. He was in the NYT twice again recently and has a new book out about it.

Now, of course both math educators and mathematicians are going to “care” in the sense that it annoys us. We are spending all this time trying to figure out how to improve students’ appreciation for and understanding of algebra etc., and out comes this dude talking about “scrap that whole project.” I remember there being at least a few responses in the MTBoS back in 2012, although Dan Meyer’s and Patrick Honner’s are the only ones I remember specifically. (Dan had some more fun with it a few years later.) And I was moved to write this reading mathematician Evelyn Lamb’s piece in Slate responding to Hacker’s book. (Dan’s responses succinctly summarize Hacker’s lack of imagination. Mr. Honner sees algebra in what Hacker wants to replace algebra with. And if you want to get more into the details, go read Lamb’s piece, it’s great.)

But annoying math teachers and mathematicians is definitely not the same thing as being remotely relevant. I mean, he is suggesting to do away with required algebra precisely at the point in history when, between the Common Core, the increasing quantity and stakes of standardized testing, and the incessant press handwringing about international competitiveness,[1] it seems to me that math, including advanced math, is more centrally ensconced in the curriculum than it’s ever been. (In my lifetime anyway. Possible historical exception of the immediate post-Sputnik era.) Is anybody taking him remotely seriously?

Yes, he has coverage in the New York Times and the Chronicle of Higher Ed. This doesn’t answer the question. He’s being intentionally provocative and succeeding in getting a rise. Is anybody taking his proposals seriously?

I eagerly await your thoughts.

Postscript: Let me indulge myself to go ahead and give you my take, just for the record. Disclaimer that I haven’t read his book. I’m going on the 3 NYT pieces.

At the level of fundamental goals, he is upset about the fact that so many Americans have traumatic experiences with their math education, meanwhile graduating without basic numeracy needed for citizenship, and he wants to do something about it. I’m not mad at this, nor could I be.

I’m also sort of delighted that being a public intellectual counts for enough that this 86-year-old Queens College political scientist can mouth off in the NYT whenever he wants. I hope that when I’m 86, the NYT still exists and I can mouth off in it whenever I want.

But on to the merits themselves. I think he sees a real problem but I, like Dan, think he lacks imagination about both (a) what math education could be, and (b) what math is for – he doesn’t get it as a domain of human inquiry, or an intellectual inheritance, just as a tool, so he applies a utilitarian standard to it I’m sure he’d never apply to history, or art, say. But also, (c) I think he misdiagnoses the problem if he thinks removing required algebra (and up) will solve it. Algebra isn’t the first point in the curriculum where massive numbers of American children jump ship emotionally. This is already happening with fractions, and may begin much earlier. Hacker would never propose to take fractions, or even more fundamental stuff, out of the curriculum, since it’s obviously (even to him) part of the “citizen mathematics” he champions.[2] Doing a good job teaching math is a problem to be solved, not avoided. Finally, (d) I think he would probably puke if he really thought through the antidemocratic implications of a general public without advanced technical literacy while all the contemporary centers of power – finance, info tech, biotech, etc. – are technocratic and growing more so. He sometimes argues that you don’t need to know algebra to learn to code. Depends on what you are coding I suppose, but in any case this is beside the point. Sergey Brin does know algebra. Jamie Dimon does too.

Update 4/5: Sam Shah sends this graphic of number of people on feedly who “saved” or “favorited” Hacker’s Feb. 27 piece (which is about what he wants to replace algebra with):

Update 6/28: Patrick Honner wrote something relevant on the Math for America blog back in May – When It Comes to Math Teaching, Let’s Listen to Math Teachers.

[1] I’m only lumping these three things (CCSSM, high-stakes testing, and international-comparison handwringing) together from the point of view that all three seem to me to be moves in the direction of consolidating the consensus on the centrality of math in contemporary American education. I do not have them confused with each other and I don’t feel the same way about each of the three at all. For exmaple, I basically dig the CCSSM but (as any regular reader of this blog knows) I do not at all dig high-stakes testing.

[2]Patrick Honner’s post points out that Hacker’s notion of “citizen mathematics” almost surely involves algebra as well…

And, a teacher shortage… Tuesday, Aug 11 2015

An obvious observation –

The last 6 or 7 years in public education policy seem to have been characterized by the following trends:

1) Tying teacher evaluation, hiring, firing, and teacher pay to student standardized test results.
2) Relatedly, using value-added measurements in making these decisions.
3) School closings and state takeovers.
4) Using VAM in making decisions about those too.

I.e. Stressing all the adults who work in schools the f*ck out.

5) Subcontracting to charter networks.
6) Direct funding cuts.

I.e. divesting from education as a public trust.

All in all, these trends, spearheaded by the US Dept. of Ed. under the leadership of Arne Duncan, but with numerous assists from other folks, representing both public and private interests (being in NYC, I’m lookin at you Mike Bloomberg), seem to me to have an obvious common theme:

Making public schools shittier places to work.

Recently, both the NYT and EdWeek have reported a national teacher shortage as enrollment in teacher training programs has dropped precipitously for several years in a row. Even TfA is having trouble recruiting.

Motherf*ckers, what did you think was gonna happen?

(Cynical voice at back of head: Ben, you are so effing naive. That’s what they wanted to happen. What better excuse to hire un-credentialed people to teach poor children? Me: No! I don’t believe it!)

Addendum (5/9/16): It came to my attention at some point that there was some debate last summer about the validity of NYT’s and EdWeek’s coverage. Is/was there really a national teacher shortage this fall, or were there certain districts with a shortage and others with a surplus? Michael Pershan had some tweets about this. So, let me just acknowledge this debate. This post was a quickly-fired-off response to seeing talk of a shortage in two major press outlets, after several years of running workshops with young teachers and feeling awe for their willingness to stay in the game even as working conditions have become shittier. If there is a shortage, I’m not surprised. If there’s not, then, let’s hope it stays that way. Go young people! That is all.

Take the Effing Tests Guys Friday, Jun 1 2012

In December, Kate had a great idea, which I seconded.

We just got backed by Diane Ravitch.

I’d say it’s time to take this one to the streets.

Dispatches from the Learning Lab: Yup, Time Pressure Sucks Friday, Mar 2 2012

Continuing the series I began here and here, about snippets of new-feeling insight about the learning process coming from my new role on the student side of the desk…

This one is funny, because I knew it, I mean I knew it in my bones, from a decade working with students; but yet it’s totally different to learn it from the student side. I’m a little late to the blogosphere with this insight; I’ve been thinking about it since December, because it kind of freaked me out. Even though, like I keep saying, I already knew it.

Learning math under time pressure sucks. It sucks.

It sucks so much that I ACTUALLY STOPPED LIKING MATH for about 5 days in December.

I didn’t know this was possible, and I don’t think anyone who’s ever worked closely with me in a mathematical context (neither my students, colleagues, or teachers) will really believe it. But it’s true. It was utterly, completely unfun. There was too much of it and too little time. It was like stuffing a really delicious meal down your throat too quickly to chew, or running up the Grand Canyon so fast you puke. Beautiful ideas were everywhere around me and I was pushing them in, or pushing past them, so hard I couldn’t enjoy them; instead they turned my stomach, and I had the feeling that the ones I pushed past in a hurry were gone forever, and the ones I shoved in weren’t going to stay down.

I had some independent study projects to work on during winter break, and what was incredible was the way the day after my last final exam, math suddenly became delicious again. Engaging on my own time and on my own terms, that familiar sense of wonder was back instantly. All I had to do was not be required to understand any specific thing by any specific date, and I was a delighted, voracious learner again.

Now part of the significance of this story for me is just the personal challenge: most of the grad students I know are stressed out, and I entered grad school with the intention of not being like them in this respect. I was confident that, having handled adult responsibilities for a decade (including the motherf*cking classroom, thank you), I would be able to engage grad school without allowing it to stress me out too much. So the point of this part of the story is just, “okay Grad Program, I see you, I won’t take you for granted, you are capable of stressing me out if I let you.” And then regroup, figure out how to adjust my approach, and see how the new approach plays out in the spring semester.

But the part of the story I want to highlight is the opposite part, the policy implication. Look, I frickin love math. If you’ve ever read this blog before, you know this. I love it so much that most of my close friends sort of don’t feel that they understand me completely. So if piling on too much of it too quickly, with some big tests bearing down, gets me to dislike math, if only for 5 days, then the last decade of public education policy initiatives – i.e. more math, higher stakes – is nothing if not a recipe for EVERYONE TO HATE IT.

And, not learn it. Instead, disgorge it like a meal they didn’t know was delicious because it was shoved down their throat too fast.

In short. The idea of strict, ambitious, tested benchmarks in math to which all students are subject is crazy. It’s CRAZY. The more required math there is, and the stricter the timeline, the crazier. I mean, I already knew this ish was crazy, I’ve been saying this for years, but in light of my recent experience I’m beside myself. If you actually care about math, if you have ever had the profound pleasure of watching a child or an adult think for herself in a numerical, spatial or otherwise abstract or structural context, you know this but I have to say it: the test pressure is killing the thing you love. Its only function is to murder something beautiful.

If you teach, but especially if you are a school leader, and especially if you are involved in policy, I beg you: defend the space in which students can learn at their own pace. Fight for that space.

Two More Links I Gotta Share… Sunday, Mar 13 2011

From the NYT, on value added – profiling a young, energetic and by all accounts highly successful teacher with a bad value added score.

I guess it was a matter of time before the media stopped acting 100% in love with value added scores; but what a relief.

I had a conversation with an old friend today who works in the federal government, in the department of labor. We were talking about various unhealthy, ineffective patterns and dynamics (and people, truth be told) in our respective professional worlds. Both of us are depressed by lack of effectiveness.

It is in the name of effectiveness, of course, that districts across the nation have been jumping headlong into the practice of rating teachers based on an opaque calculation with their students’ test scores, on tests that were already dubious measures of anything worthwhile, and then using these ratings to make decisions affecting teachers’ jobs. I don’t know the best policy environment to promote teacher effectiveness, but I know for certain it’s not this. If you want to find a perfect system for diverting all teachers’ attention away from their students’ learning and their own growth, look no further than value added ratings.

I don’t want to be preaching to the choir here (although I probably am), so to the proponents of value-added measures, let me say this:

I know what I’m saying sounds counterintuitive to you – why wouldn’t incentivizing having your students perform well on measures of their learning lead you to focus on their learning? I will put aside for the moment the extremely important question of whether state tests are a measure of students’ learning (let alone whether value-added methodology really measures teachers’ contribution to it), and respond with an even more fundamental question:

Think of the last time you did something complicated and nuanced, something rich and interesting enough to require some creativity and artfulness from you. Imagine now that you were REALLY ANXIOUS about the outcome while you planned and performed your work. Would this anxiety really help you do it better?

* * * * *

On a lighter note (well, sort of):

From Shawn Cornally, on teaching evolution:

So many people trying to tell us how to teach promote the just-say-it-better model of education. This doesn’t work. You can’t just talk at kids and say things ‘better’ than your teachers did. They need time to simmer. They need time to think. They need people to lay off and let them fucking think for a second.


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Daffodil Hotel & Spa Grasmere

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Rooms, services Take a few-days trip to Grasmere and enjoy the hospitality of Daffodil Hotel & Spa Grasmere. The hotel is welcoming all guests in Grasmere with 78 comfortable rooms to stay in. You are also welcome at the hotel for a fine local meal in the restaurant. For guests arriving by car parking possibility is available nearby. For meetings and nice evening chats the local bar will provide an ideal location. In the safe your valuables can be the safely secured. The hotel is offering wireless Internet connection (WiFi) without charging extra fees, so you may go online anytime with your laptop during your stay. If you wish to learn more about the exact scope of services provided by Daffodil Hotel & Spa Grasmere (including those available for an extra fee) or about the equipment of the rooms, you can find the complete list on the information sheet below.

Payment Depeding on the selected room, date and price, you may be asked to provide credit card guarantee or to pay by credit card in advance.

Arrival, opening hours The earliest time to check in to your room is 12:00, the latest time to check out of your room is 12:00. The personnel of the hotel can speak in English with you.

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LA22 9PR Keswick Road , Grasmere, LA22 9PR (United Kingdom)
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RICHFIELD FINANCIAL SERVICES LIMITED was incorporated on 16th April, 1992 in the state of West Bengal as a Private Limited Company under the name & style of Richfield Financial Services Limited with the objects of carrying on the business of providing financial services, viz., Merchant Banking, Stock Broking, Portfolio Management, Project Consultancy, Loan Syndication.
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A voice from the edge (fund)

The Edge Fund has just completed its first round of funding – supporting 28 grassroots groups. Here’s a quick interview with Joe, one of the Edge Fund community:

What’s the vision of The Edge Fund? Our long term goal is to achieve systemic social change. This is not an easy task and will have to be a process which is led by the grassroots as those in power seek to keep things on the whole ‘business as usual’.

We hope we are filling a big gap by offering financial support to these types of grassroots groups who are also working towards this.

We’re particularly interested in supporting groups who are facing discrimination and injustice because of their class, ability, gender, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, or other factors — those who are actively working to challenge these injustices and to create just and healthy communities.

What was the catalyst for starting the Edge Fund – why now? We are facing monumental injustice and threats from the current economic, ecological and democratic crises in this country and beyond. All power and resources are held by the privileged few who are putting the worst effects of economic failure onto ordinary people.
What made you get involved? My background is campaigning around climate change, squatting and against the trebling of student fees. I have struggled, as many have in the past, at the near impossibility of securing funding for grassroots work of a radical nature. Inaccessible funding application forms and unhealthy hierarchies make the whole process soul destroying. It was clear the Edge Fund was on a mission to be different.

What have been the biggest challenges so far? For me the hardest part was getting 25 members, all of very different backgrounds, to agree on a shared values statement. This was always going to be tricky, and took many hours of sometimes painful meetings but we did it through good facilitation skills and a shared understanding that we’re all working for the same thing in the long term.

And the most exciting things so far? During the first round of funding, once there was 30 applications left from the 334 we received in total, members were allocated a group/groups to get more information from. I was given Critical Education Project, Britain on Trial, UK Via Campesina and Fuel Poverty Action. I managed to meet up with three of them and had a conversation with one over the phone. It felt like a very empowering process where we were already building a mutually beneficial process both for the funder and grantee. The first thing I told them all was that my background was not in funding which immediately broke down the inherent power inequality.

How hopeful are you having seen the applications for your first round? I was extremely happy with the 28 groups who received some support from Edge Fund during the first round. I was really pleased with all 4 of my groups that I was allocated and my favourite project was Disabled People Against The Cuts who are a really strong campaign standing up for Disabled People’s rights all across the country. All I hope for is that we will be able to give out more cash next time.

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