A Success and a Failure

Since my last post I've had two quizzes. I passed one with a much higher grade than I expected, 79 out of 100. The other, which I took yesterday, I know I failed.

I hit the wall at logs.

I can't tell for sure whether it is simply my own lack of capacity or the failure to put in the time, but manipulating logarithms is simply not clicking for me. I'm finding that a little sad because I remember in 7th grade, when I was a potential math wiz, I was excited to learn how to multiply and divide using logs.

In any event, I can feel that my two-semester romance with algebra is coming to an end. Every time I try to make myself try to study for the May 11 final, I find something more important that has to get done -- grade my own students' papers, review Border Beat stories, start to learn Joomla for next semester. Or, even better, take a bike ride to train for BTC or RAGBRAI.

I'm glad to took these two courses and don't regret any of the time I put into studying. I've learned a lot about algebra and lots of other things.

Here are some thoughts I have about the enterprise:

Learning math at this level is a function of time and practice, not brains. It's all mechanical. You learn the steps and do them. Some people can learn the steps faster than others, but ultimately, it's just steps. I don't know yet whether that changes the higher you go in math.

Even though Steve Reyes, my teacher, is very good, except for the use of calculators, it feels like the the University of Arizona classroom experience is much like what it would have been in 1955 or 1963. I was disappointed that the UA is not taking advantage of some of the wonderful computer video and animation teaching tools that are available, tools that Pima College does provide for their students.

A Kino Bay neighbor, an engineer, told me, "Math is a tool. Nothing more, nothing less." I didn't want to believe him. I wanted math to be poetry. If it was poetry, I didn't get to see it. I saw tools. I think my neighbor was right.

Fantasizing about the Math book for Journalists was fun. But it didn't meet any one of my three criteria for taking on that kind of a project. If I were to commit to writing a book it would need to satisfy one (more is better, but at least one) of the following conditions: 1) It would be amusing and fun as a project for its own sake, like making a painting that you'll never sell; 2) It would do some good for other people, satisfy a need, or help make the world a better place; or 3) It would make a lot of money, or at least some. The Math book for Journalists didn't pass.

My plan is to take the final, but not to put too much time into studying for it. Then I will make what, for the time being, will be a final entry in this blog, and then move into whatever I want to put energy into next.

But right now, I need to read the final stories that my students in my feature writing class wrote.