The worst grade you can consistently get

Most schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions of learning in the United States use a letter based system for grading. These Letters correspond with numbers used to calculate a students Grade Point Average (GPA). With all of the colleges and universities that I'm familiar with in the US, the grades for the individual courses are recorded as letters while the GPA is recorded as a decimal number. Without getting into the confusion this can cause students, I have come to detest the "Average" grade, that is the grade that indicates the middle position on the grading scale, often referred to as a grade of "C." A grade of "C" is, in my opinion, is the worst grade there is.

I'm not speaking about individual "C" grades, which are sometimes badges of honor that a student will proudly display for those classes that they struggled, toiled, and sweated through. There is significant meaning to a "hard 'C'" as opposed to an "easy 'A'". I know of several students who have prided themselves on receiving a "C" in a class that, based on their preparation, challenges, or mistaken enrollment, they would have failed without impressive growth or change on their part. Those "C" are hard earned battle scars on the academic body of a student's transcript and should be remembered as the reason for the better grades from that point on.

What I'm referring to are the "C" grades that pile up, for one reason or another, on a students transcript semester after semester and year after year. These grades may be because of a lack of effort, as is often thought of stereotypical college students focused on partying. They may be because the student has consistently run into road blocks that consistently derail them from their studies. Some of these road blocks are extenuating circumstances beyond the student's control such as family emergencies, medical problems, changes is employment, etc. Some students in these kinds of situations are so focused and determined to earn their degree that they enroll over and over again despite a lack of change to their situation. Many of these determined students end up withdrawing or failing their classes due to their circumstances, but others end the semester with a transcript full of "C"s. While this looks better than having a bunch of failing grades, there are situations where "C" grades are worse than failing. As these situations are subjective to each university I am not advocating failing a class over getting a "C". I will gladly advocate talking to an academic advisor whenever possible about the situation prior to action.

So why are "C"s the worst grade you can consistently get. They are often the minimum grade required to fulfill specific course requirements but are usually too low to allow a student to meet the minimum GPA requirement for the program. For example, a student may need at least a "C" in all of their major courses, but they have to have at least a 2.5 or 2.75 GPA. If the majority of a student's classes are "C"s that student's GPA will be tethered around a 2.0 GPA. This is because a GPA is an average - it hangs around what grade you have the most of. The situation above is why "C"s are the horrible, they are high enough that the requirement is met, so students don't have to / want to retake them, but they are low enough that they can sabotage a student's overall GPA. What's more, there is nothing in place to repair the damage they cause. At the colleges and universities I've worked at we have a provision for students that had been out of school for five or six years and that hadn't done well in previous years. It allowed the removal of grades of "D+" and lower to be removed from the students GPA calculations, effectively boosting their GPA. However, what happens when the student doesn't have any "D+"s or lower on their transcript, but instead have a plethora of "C"s? the only way to remove them would be to retake the classes. If that isn't an option, such as with transfer work, then the student would have to take additional classes and get higher grades to pull up their GPA.

If taking additional classes is the only option for a student it can be a disheartening one. Just to give you an idea. I recently ran the numbers for a student that needed to bring their GPA up 0.7 points. That's the equivalent of going from a "B-" to a "B+". In order to do so they would have had to take 14 courses with perfect "A" grades. What's interesting, is that if they had gotten "A-" grades instead they would need to have taken 26 courses. And if they got "B+" grades - 51 courses. A full Bachelor's program at my current institution requires approximately 40 courses. The number of courses that are required for each drop in grade received increases at an alarming rate. Even for smaller shifts in grades, it can be disheartening. Another student only needed a 0.15 increase in GPA, but they already had over 40 courses worth of transfer. They would need 5 courses with perfect "A" grades, 7 classes with "A-"s, or 16 courses of "B+" grades. Again, for each drop in grade, it increases the number of classes required by a surprising amount. When it comes to GPA, quality reduces quantity.

Now that I've ranted, what is my suggestion for students? For students who find themselves in the position I've described, all I feel capable of saying is that It is possible to bring up your GPA - only you can decide if it's worth the time and effort it will take. I'm more than happy to help them get the information they need to make the decision, because it should not be made lightly. For students that are struggling and who I see are in danger of starting on the slippery slop, I advise they evaluate their situation and take whatever steps are necessary to strive for quality of grades over quantity of courses. This usually involves talking to an advisor.

Ready for School?

As I work in education the month of August is very, very busy for us. In fact, if I had known that I couldn't take vacation days in August (because of how busy it is) I probably wouldn't have gotten married in August. As it is, I'll be celebrating my anniversary in October, but I digress.

The institution I work at has open enrollment which means that we don't have admissions standards that students need to meet (other than completing high school/GED and paying the admissions fee). We also don't have deadlines for admissions or registration - although we always recommend doing it before classes start. Classes are starting on August 31st this year and it always seems that as soon as August hits, everyone who thought about going to school, but hasn't done anything yet, suddenly panics and starts the process of getting admitted and registered.This translates into a very busy advising office with lots of students asking what classes they need to take and why they aren't able to.

This is strange to me because it was not the kind of  student that I was. My roommates and I would log on to the computer at midnight with our classes all chosen and would be registered in less than two minutes. I always bought a copy of the schedule (this is when they printed it like a huge magazine), and would eagerly look through the classes with a pen, circling the ones I wanted and comparing days and times. Then I would sit back until the start of classes and not have to worry about it.

I know (because I am constantly reminded of it every August) that this is not always possible for some students. We always have a large number of returning LDS missionaries or current/former military service personnel that are anxious to get into classes, but may not be available until August. We have first generation students that don't know how early they can apply and register. While it can be draining to work with any student who is anxiously trying to get into a class, it is easier to be patient and helpful to these students.

The students that really get to me (although I do everything I can to keep from showing it) are the ones that are returning and know how registration works and just didn't do anything until August. Many times they will also come in to our office, often aware that we work on an appointment only basis, and ask to meet with an advisor to "sort out their schedule." We had a student in last Friday, 10 minutes before we closed, desperate to meet with someone. He confessed that he had slacked on his classes and hadn't checked his E-mail about his waitlist classes until it was past the opportunity. I was glad I wasn't at the front desk because I would have found it difficult to keep my impatience with him out of my voice. With that said, I feel that I'm generally pretty good and not letting my impatience or dislike impact my interactions. It is something that I actively try to prevent.

With all that said, with as busy as life gets, and with the hectic nature of my work at this time of year, I really enjoy the start of school. I've always enjoyed school and the excitement that comes from starting a new year with new subjects and new teachers. My kids are excited to start (2nd grade and kindergarten). At back-to-school night my son's teacher asked him what he was excited to learn about in kindergarten. He said, "Science! Like volcanoes and space!" She gave a small grimace and said, "Well, we don't actually study science in kindergarten, but I bet you could teach me about volcanoes." Which prompted him to start sharing what he knew about volcanoes. It made me proud.

So, all in all, when people ask me if I'm ready for school to start, Yes. Yes I am.

Fisking a Developmental Math Petition

A favored author of my, Larry Correia, will engage in taking an article or blog post and systematically discussing its failings. Using his format as an example, I am going to address a recent article in the Ogden Standard Examiner about a student who started a petition against Weber State's developmental math program. The original article can be found here. The original article below is in regular text while my comments are in bold/italics.

Student petition blasts WSU math program

OGDEN -- It’s not unusual to see students break down into tears because of Weber State University’s Developmental Mathematics Program, according to Lauralee Stephens Kohl.


It's not uncommon to see student break down because of math anywhere. Math is widely considered a difficult and involved topic. If crying students was the only reason to change a program then the Interior Design program at USU should be change. Or nursing programs all over the country. Or Culinary Arts, medical school, law school, anatomy courses, chemistry courses, computer science courses. The list is nearly endless.


The program was already difficult for students who are struggling with math, and changes to the program only add obstacles to graduation, she said. That’s why she’s circulating a petition to stop the changes.

“It’s like an abyss,” Kohl, of Brigham City, said of the program. “Once you get in it, you feel like you just can’t get out.”

Kathryn Van Wagoner, director of the Developmental Math Program, says many of the concerns listed in the petition are based on misinformation or misunderstandings.

“I have received some emails from students about some information they were given, and it’s actually not correct information,” she said. “We are transitioning to this new plan, so we've been refining and verifying our internal communications prior to making a formal announcement of the new plan, and student concerns have brought to my attention some information that has to be corrected on the website.”


So you are saying that the math program shouldn't change? They shouldn't try to incorporate new technologies, teaching methods, or more accurate assessment tools? If people didn't like change in mathematics we would still be using lines and circles. We wouldn't be past Roman numerals. That would make everything better. Consider this. A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education shows that the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) primarily rely on lecture based teachingf much to the determent of their students. Lecturing has been shown to have limitations particularly "that lecturing is not suited for higher levels of learning: comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation." Those are the very levels that math is designed to stimulate. Why would you want to stop a math program from making changes to their program in an attempt to improve instruction and student experience?


Jeff Henry, president of WSU’s Student Senate, sat down with Van Wagoner to discuss the rumors about the program changes.

“I wanted to get an understanding of what exactly is happening,” he said. “From what she’s explained ... the new changes are going to be beneficial to students.”

So, what Kathy said was right, many of the concerns are due to misinformation and misunderstanding. Once Jeff Henry got his understanding he saw the changes as beneficial. So maybe it's not the program.


Developmental math is, essentially, pre-college math for students whose skills are not quite up to college standards. According to WSU’s website, 75 percent of public four-year universities across the nation offer developmental classes.

The first complaint Kohl lists in her petition is the practice of placing holds on students who have not completed developmental math classes within a certain period of time. Until those classes are completed, no other classes can be taken.

Van Wagoner says that practice has been gone since January. The idea was to motivate students to complete the classes, instead of causing bigger problems for themselves through procrastination. It didn’t work.


"It didn't work" So they changed it. There were many people who celebrated that change. I know of sparkling cider and treats being shared in some offices. Students were not the only ones that didn't like that. Again, they wanted to help students and when they saw it didn't work they got rid of it. Also, if your first concern on your petition was resolved six months ago I would say that you're off to a bad start. Have you done your homework about the issue before asking for signatures?


At the heart of Kohl’s petition is the use of Accuplacer exams to determine in which class to place students, based on their math skills.

“When I started ... you could take unlimited AccuPlacer placement tests,” Kohl said.

It cost students $10 per test, but many were willing to take them several times in an attempt to score high enough to get out of taking certain classes. Now the number of times a test can be taken has been limited, she said.

“We made that change quite some time ago,” said Van Wagoner, “because students were repeatedly testing and not making any improvement in their placement, and basically throwing their money away.”

Now students have two attempts at the placement test, which is enough to allow a retake, said Van Wagoner. More should not be necessary, because the point of a placement test is to find out what math do you know, so you are put into the right class.

Henry agrees that taking the test multiple times isn’t helpful.

“If I’m taking it 15 times, I’m really guessing — I don’t know what I’m doing,” he said, adding that the current policy of allowing the test just twice a year is fair and reasonable.

Can you argue with their reasoning? "were repeatedly testing and not making any improvement...basically throwing their money away." Kathy basically is saying "We don't want your money if it's not helping you." But this change limited the effectiveness of Acer Placer - and that's what a lot of student object to.

Acer Placer is a private company that "offer[s] personalized instruction in a class of no more than 8 students. Our instructors guide you through the materials covered on the Accuplacer math placement test." They claim, "students from any background in math can test our of Math 1050." I cannot condemn them nor can I recommend them. I don't really want to do either. This is because I've seen them work for some students and not work for other students. Students take an eight week course which involves taking the Accuplacer test multiple times, often more than once a week. When WSU limited the number of times a student could take the Accuplacer students enrolled in Acer Placer courses claimed it was because we were trying to shut down Acer Placer - that WSU felt threatened by Acer Placer.
It wasn't, WSU doesn't. It's because of the reasons that Kathy gave above. It is also worth considering that students that take the same test multiple times will learn how the test reacts. So, are those students learning how to succeed in a math class, are they demonstrating that they know the basis of algebra well enough to succeed in a class or are they just learning how to take a test? I will never understand a statement I've heard so often. "I'm not good at math, so I'm going to test out." If you aren't good at something what makes you think you can test out? If students want to spend money on a private company which wants $1000 dollars that is their right. If Acer Placer is teaching students mathematical concepts and principles then it doesn't matter what test they take - math is math whether its Accuplacer, ACT, Math Mastery, or SAT. Math is the same in English, French, Russian, and Chinese. Do what you want to study for the test. Just don't expect us to endorse wasting your time taking the same test twelve times with minimal results.


Starting Aug. 25., the Accuplacer test won’t even be used for math placement. It’s being replaced by a weighted rubric of high school GPA and ACT math scores.

“We’ve eliminated the need for students to take a placement test,” Van Wagoner said. “We did an internal review of past student success, and found ACT scores and GPA were a good indicator of student success.”

Look! You don't even have to take the test. You don't have to spend your money if you don't want to.


Students who don’t have an ACT score, or who want to improve their placement, will now be given the “Math Mastery” exam.

If you want to test out of classes go ahead! We're not trying to stop you.


Kohl objects to the “Math Mastery” exam, saying it’s based on the school’s 0950 and 0990 math courses.

“The math program has a 60 percent fail rate at Weber State, so you’re not teaching the essential skills needed,” she said, adding that the curriculum should be fixed before it’s the basis of testing.


Of course! The curriculum is at fault! The topics that they cover in Math 0950 and 0990, which are almost identical to other developmental math courses offered around the state. The subject of mathematics, one of the most standardized topics across the state is at fault for the 60% fail rate. Only 40% of people in college can do fractions, real numbers, decimals, exponents, and ratios. The curriculum of the developmental math classes was taught 500 years ago and last week in millions of elementary schools across the country and the world. Of course it's the curriculum that's at fault. Blame the professors. Blame the technology, Blame astrology. Blame any variable you care to, but to say that the basic curriculum of the developmental math classes of Weber State is not suitable material to gauge a student's ability to succeed in math is laughable. If you can't do fractions, it's not the fractions' fault. It might be yours, it might be your sub-par teacher's fault, it might the fault of dyscalculia , but it's not the fractions.


She says she spent three times the required hours working on math assignments, and never improved until she took math classes from a private tutoring business.


Students in developmental math courses that use the Hub meet one day a week (50 minutes) and are required to meet 100 minutes to simulate the time they would normally spend in class if they were in a regular lecture course. Research has shown that for every hour in class, students can expect to spend two hours outside of class on homework and studying. This is widely acknowledged. Let's say she spend 300 minutes a week in the Hub, that is three times the required amount for the class. Based on our ratio of hours in class per hours out of class she is short another 100 minutes a week. A common misconception is that those 100 minutes is the minimum to succeed in class. It is not. It is the same simply attending class. Homework is extra. She made a great start and just needs to keep going.

Van Wagoner says changes have been made. In addition to online classes and a TERM (Technology Enhanced Redesign of Mathematics) self-paced course, which students do on their own with help available from tutors, the program is offering developmental math classes in flipped form. Flipped classes ask students to study lessons at home, and then meet in a classroom, with a teacher, four days a week while working through assignments.

The program is also starting a new “Pathway to Contemporary Mathematics” (Math 0810) class, for students who aren’t going into science, technology, engineering or math.

“It’s not necessarily less rigorous, it’s just more relevant to the student,” said Van Wagoner, explaining that it has less emphasis on algebra.


Again, the developmental math department is expanding their offerings in an attempt to meet the needs of more students. And they are petitioning to stop that? You want math instruction to stay the same and not look for new and improved methods of teaching and reaching out to students?


Kohl’s petition also says the “Math Mastery” exam can only be taken once a year, and will be more difficult to pass because it’s fill in the blanks instead of multiple choice.

“It’s tricky. If you put in 0.5 instead of 1/2, it’s wrong,” she said.

That is true, said Van Wagoner, but each question will tell you the format in which the answer should be written.


If you can't follow instructions.....


Joanna Bushell, of Ogden, signed Kohl’s petition. She is one of several students who has been taking private math classes to learn skills, and then taking AccuPlacer tests multiple times at an applied technology college.

“It’s not a trick — you have to know math to pass,” she said. “There’s no way to just fumble your way through AccuPlacer and get an accidental passing grade.”

Taking the test multiple times is for practice.


Good! If they teach you want you need to know and you can still practice what's the problem?


“Once you feel confident you can pass it consistently, you go to Weber State and hope you can pass,” she said.


Hope you pass? If you know the stuff and you pass it consistently, why wouldn't you be able to do it at Weber State? Math is math (as shown above).


Carin Mann, of Layton, is using AccuPlacer to test out of math completely.

“I’m not even signed up for math at Weber State University,” she said. “I heard horrible things about it, and that nobody can pass it.”

And a person who has not even tried something is a good source for information about the situation. This is also a good place to mention that many student that don't take developmental math courses at Weber, take developmental math classes is at one of two Applied Technology Colleges near by. Weber does not discourage students from taking classes there. What is interesting is that they use a self paced modular layout for instruction. There is no teacher and no tutor support. We use a similar system: modular and with minimal class time, so students can work as fast or slow as they want within the usual semester time line. So students that attend the ATCs are taking classes using the same format that they would here but they don't have a designated professor or free tutoring services. I've learned that some students after taking classes at the ATCs returned to Weber because we can provide additional support unavailable at the ATC. We're okay with students taking classes somewhere else and transferring them in. I just find it funny that they avoid us because they hear that "Weber math is hard!" just to go somewhere that is just like our program with less help.


Bushell says eliminating AccuPlacer tests forces students into developmental math classes at WSU.

“They’re gradually narrowing it down so your only option is to take two years, or four semesters, of their math classes,” she said.


Because we only want to to take our courses. That's why we accept transfer work. That's why we allow students to complete their math requirement how ever they want. That's why we still allow students to test out of math. That's right, not just test out of developmental math, but students can still completely test out of math. The only thing that has changed is that they need to demonstrate their competence in fewer attempts.


She’s afraid the real reason for doing away with AccuPlacer is monetary, because students would have to pay for WSU classes instead of private tutoring.

“I would imagine it’s a great money maker for the university,” she said.


Because the $1000 dollars they pay for to Acer Placer is such a loss to us. The average class size is 3 credits. Based on current tuition rates if they only took that one class the cost would be $920. Yes, we might feel that, but Weber's job is not to make money. It's what we need to do to help enhance our programs and offerings, but nobody who works with students is being told by administrators, "If students don't register for developmental Math classes then you're out of a job." But very few students take just one class because it's not as economical as going full time (12 credits), or even just going part time. If a student who traditionally attends 12 semesters says, "I'm only going to do nine semesters and take my math somewhere else" the difference between the tuition and fee's cost is just under $500. If a student did that for three semesters we would lose $1500, less than what one additional student would bring in by taking six credits. While the student in question would save $500. Unless you are going to try to test out of at least two classes there is no real cost benefit to Acer Placer. Not to mention, if the student continues to take 12 credits we essentially don't lose anything. I can understand their reasoning to save money. The argument that we will suffer monetarily simply because of a small percentage of our students not taking upwards of 10 credits over the course of their 60 to 120 credit university career is silly. Not to mention tuition and fees are used to pay for services and resources to support students - most of which are not used by the students. Yes, we are money grubbers and developmental math is our method of staying in the black.


The new policies apply to all students, no matter when they started at WSU, according to Kohl.

Because the “Math Mastery” test takes over on Aug. 25, students who were counting on testing out through AccuPlacer are in a pinch.

“They should have to give more notice,” said Bushell. “I just need to test out of math to get my degree. ... I have approximately 30 days to do it.”


Interesting if you can test out of three classes over the course of 8 weeks, why would you have problems simply completing once class over 16 weeks? How much notice would you require? 8 weeks? The change was made at the beginning of Summer semester which was the first week of May. It's been at least 11 weeks since then not to mention another four weeks until the deadline goes into effect. If you had wanted to do the Acer Placer course, you could have done it twice in the time give. Thirty days is four weeks, what were you doing the other four weeks?


Van Wagoner says every change that’s been made has been with the goal of having students take fewer math classes, and get to graduation.

“We want them to be successful in their math,” she said.

She knows the changes make for a complex situation, and encourages students to meet with advisers on a regular basis.


Ever since we heard about this change I have asked every student how they intend to complete their Math requirement. Those that said that they were doing Acer Placer, or even that they "intended to test out" that there were changes and that they needed to talk to the Developmental Math Department before paying for anything. Most of the things that students experience difficulty with could have been either prevented, fixed, or avoided by talking to an advisor. Yes, we try to contact students about policy changes, but we are limited by the information students give us. I've been involved in initiatives to contact students and many do not have current or correct contact information. Others still do not return correspondence which may indicate that they don't receive it, read it, or care about it. If students don't try to stay in contact with us there is no way to verify that we can reach them.


“If there is any student who has any kinds of concerns about math, I would be glad to meet with them,” she said.

Contact reporter Becky Wright at 801-625-4274 or bwright@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @ReporterBWright.


Overall, I thought the reporter did a decent job showing both sides. I am continually amazed at the lengths people will go to find a way around math. It seems that if some people put the effort they dedicate to complaining, circumnavigating, and trying to work the system to just doing what is asked of them in the system they would be done. Yes, math is hard. Yes, it is abstract, Yes, you will rarely, if ever, see it the same way that it is shown in the text book. Yes, it takes time you would rather use to do other things. So does a lot of other things and yet we do them. Taxes, insurance, immigration, legal proceedings, raising children, dating, recovering from illness. Yet people do those things too. Yes, those examples are all individual and different. People still do it. Math is required for a college degree and so you do it if you want the degree. In your work life there may be times you have to do something undesirable for your boss. Think of this the same way. If you have difficulty ask for help. If that person can help you, ask someone else - just like anything else that's hard. There are legitimate disabilities that prevent people from succeeding in math classes - get help for them, we will accommodate you as needed. I am more than willing to acknowledge the difficulties these students have experienced in math. I am not willing to consider this petition as being the slightest bit useful.

Update: As it turns out this article was useful to the Developmental math Department at Weber State. Kathy VanWagoner said that she wanted to do a press release when they made changes but the PR department wouldn't do it. Then this article came out and she was required to do a press release.

Why we read

EA Younker recently had a new addition to her house, a young man named Tech, who struggles with reading. EA makes some pretty valid points - you need to be able to read to get a driver's licence and a job, but why is literature pushed so heavily in school? I clearly understand the need for people to communicate well in writing. However, is there validity to people questioning why they are required to read Shakespeare, Dickens, or any of the other "classics" out there? Just as people in the arts question the need for them to study algebra is there a reverse argument? EA's husband, Moose, did his training in technical fields and had very little patience or preference for reading. He's done well for himself and his career and his life without analyzing or even reading the classics. So - like math - what is defending the study of literature?

Unlike math, students can graduate from most colleges and universities without taking a literature course. I never took one. Writing classes, however, tend to be required as much as math is. With that said, I will say it's unlikely that a student will not be exposed to at least one instance of literary analysis in college. So, to get some kind of perspective literature requirements, I went back to high school. The Common Core has a nice website for what the standards are for the different levels from Kindergarten to 12th grade. Once you hit sixth grade and up the standards look very similar, but just require more extensive supporting of your ideas. From this, I get that the goal of studying literature is to help students see narrative structure, engage in critical reasoning based on evidence and inference, comparing and contrasting mediums in both artistic and practical uses of conveying ideas, examining how the characters respond to their environment, and being able to succinctly convey complex ideas. I guess I can understand those goals.

However, couldn't those skills be developed via other means? In fact, I demonstrated how algebra develops reasoning and critical thinking when defending why we study math. Scientific experimentation could be used to examine different mediums. Speaking and writing classes would be perfect for examining how to convey ideas. And psychology and sociology would let us examine real people interacting with their environment more accurately than a fictional character in a fictional environment. So, is literature just being redundant? Books take time to read - especially for someone with dyslexia, vision difficulties, and attention limitations. And many of the books that are required are books that the generation reading them don't feel they can relate to.

So, why do we require students to study literature? Because, the human mind works by building connections between both internalized, personal experiences and external examples. And literature can help provide us with both personal experiences and external examples in ways that other forms of entertainment can. Take film - often seen as the opposite of books. Lets take the Twilight series as an example. The bulk of the books is taken up by Belle's internal struggles, thoughts, insights, and musings. How do you translate that to visual - Stares! Mary Robinette Kowal mentioned this in talking about puppetry (4:05 in the podcast). The puppet is thinking about what it's looking at. Unfortunately the audience is watching the watcher and has to infer what they are thinking. While it is possible for an actor (or a puppeteer) to convey exactly what is being felt, it may still not be clear why they are feeling that way because we have no insight into the character's mind short of a blatant (and often criticized) voice-over. Not to say that books can't be ham-fisted in their approach to their topic, just that there are more options open to a writer than a film maker.

I threw this question out on Facebook and had a number of people contribute. One linked to an article on Scientific America that discussed results of reading literary fiction (the genre that "classics" often fit into). The study found that people that read literary fiction had a higher capacity for empathy. The same was not true for genre fiction, according to the study. The reason for this was that, "literary fiction... focuses more on the psychology of characters and their relationships." Which I find clashes slightly with the next statement, "Often those characters' minds are depicted vaguely, without many details, and we're forced to fill in the gaps to understand their intentions and motivations." If they focus so much on the characters' psychology and why are their minds often depicted vaguely. Anyway, I will agree that literary fiction tends to focus on unsympathetic characters and situations, requiring the reader to develop forms of empathy to understand the character better. I do think that thoughtful reading of genre fiction can also increase empathy, but the work will need opportunities for the reader to empathize.

A part of literature building our ability to empathize is that through literature we have the ability to witness the world through other peoples' eyes. George R.R. Martin said, "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one." My initial thought was that Julius Ceasar (in the Shakespeare play of the same name) says, "A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once." There are very important distinctions between these quotes. They just sound the same. Unlike the coward a reader has the luxury of experiencing others' lives and points of view in whether those people be fictional of real. One of the best books I ever read was It Doesn't Take a Hero, the autobiography of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. Another was The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. Both were non-fiction and enabled me to experience, in a small way, events and wars that helped shape my culture and generation. People looking to experience censorship and government controls have but to look to Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury, 1984 and Animal Farm by Orwell, and Anthem by Rand. There are so many topics that may be explored and experienced in literature. It doesn't just have to be non-fiction.

And lastly, a reason to study literature. To help people come to enjoy reading. Books are a basis for entertainment and culture all over the world. Many movies start life between covers. Even those that don't are first written down. The same goes for theater, broadcasts, speeches, and comedy. Someone first committed it to paper and it sounded good enough there to expand and build on it. I don't begrudge film makers their adaptations of books. I don't prefer audio books over paper copy or digital. I'm just glad that I gained an appreciate for a good story early in life so I could enjoy it for the rest of my life.

Misconceptions: Doing verses Knowing

I had an interesting conversation with Angel last night that really got me thinking. We often think about the different families we come from. Her parents and grandparents had minimal formal educational opportunities while mine had undergraduate and graduate degrees. Her family worked farms, machine shops, and supply chain while mine taught, did engineering, and worked in finance. Her family built their house, fixes their cars, and raised cows. Mine - didn't, doesn't, and can't. These differences are just a small part of who they individually and don't get in the way of them enjoying each other's company. I love my in-laws and Angel has told me that my parents are some of her favorite people.

The conversation got me thinking about why I am driven to know things, and to be known as a person who knows things. I always hate to acknowledge how egotistical I can be. It literally makes me wince when I think about it. Unfortunately it's true though. Just ask my wife. One of her better qualities is the ability to deflate my ego when it needs it. Regardless of periodic egocentric tendencies I have placed some measure of my self worth in being known as a person who knows stuff. I'm sure there are some positives to that, but I can't think of any right now. One giant negative is that when I remember something wrong, or am just flat out wrong about something I tend to take it rather personally. Or as one person put it I "act like someone has torn my heart out and put it in a blender." I really try not to be such a martyr, but few people understand what they look like through the eyes of others. Maybe we just need to get shot with a point of view gun (or at least those of us that are male).

I think that this emphasis that I've placed on knowing things comes from a misconception of knowing verses doing. My father went to work in a cubical, crunching numbers, building spreadsheets, and manipulating percentages (in a good way). There was very little visual representation of his efforts. To me, it must have appeared that he worked by knowing things, insubstantial things. He went to school so he could know things so he could work at knowing things. To my muddled brain "doing" something meant you had a finished product that could be used, something that you could see and manipulate to accomplish something else. "Knowing" and "doing" were two sides of a scale in my mind. Remember, that young minds tend to revolve around dualism, the idea that there is a right a wrong approach to everything - and nothing in between. One of my least favorite expressions "those that can, do; those that can't, teach." is a prime example of this dualistic thinking. As if knowing and doing are two very different things when really they are simply different manifestations of the same catalyst - productivity.

My obsession with knowing things, I believe, stems from this misconception of knowing and doing being exclusive of each other. I did not know how to "do" much. My father knows his way around a shop, can identify basic problems with a car, and has built some impressive items for our home - mostly utilitarian in design. However, because he made his living "knowing" things and because I couldn't "do" anything (ask my dad about digging window wells for him one summer) I put more emphasis on "knowing." My degree is in history, an area that is infamous for it's focus on "knowing" and not "doing." I tend to remember rather random and often useless facts and trivia. And, as pointed out, I tend to take it personally when people say I'm wrong about something that I feel that I "know" well. Not exactly a well balanced psyche if you think about it.

There is lots that I'm not talking about. In depth discussion on the similarities of knowing and doing. How I've learned to "do" many different things. The respect that I have for those that "do" (enormous!). What people in "knowing" jobs actually do. But I'm still coming to grips with reality of my skewed, subconscious preconceptions. However my brain decided that there was a bigger difference between knowing an doing I've now have to adjust my thinking accordingly. I will probably return to this topic again.

The 2nd situation: Dealing with our own problems

In the 1st part of this discussion I explained how people sometimes feel frustrated when they "get the run around," and how this is often because they do not know what kind of help they need. This week I'm looking at situations that we all hate. Where we are in an unfortunate place and we were the ones that put ourselves there. As an advisor I see this a fair amount. The most common situation is when a student fails a class or an semester (or several) and is then faced with the consequences. In some cases all the student needs is a little "GPA damage control," something that is easier than many think. Other times, the student may be facing a three year suspension from classes, denial of financial aid, being unqualified to apply (or unsuccessful in applying) to their program of choice. Whatever the situation is it's not uncommon that the person who has put themselves there chooses to reject responsibility and pin it on something or someone else. A common expression used by guilt avoiding students is, "The professor failed me." My thoughts make me want to say, "Are you sure it wasn't your assignments, papers, and test scores that didn't fail you?"

To be fair, there are circumstances beyond our control. Insurmountable obstacles that cannot be overcome by sheer determination and will power. Relatives die, people get sick, jobs experiences layoffs or go out of business. This post is not to claim that any failure is a result of our own lack of desire or ability. I am not claiming that all misfortune is the fault of the person experiencing it. The purpose of my post here is to address when people to not acknowledge where the responsibility lies and instead choose to affix it to something else. Again, this tends to be off of themselves and onto somebody else.

It can often be challenging working with these students (I'll stick with academic situations as I am most familiar with them). They may rant and complain about their professor, the university, the services provided, and everything else under the sun. Any mention of what they may have done (or may not have) is met with counter accusations about what others did (or didn't) do. For example, my office handles compliance with the developmental placement and completion policy for the university. The consequences of not taking or not passing the mandated classes vary between minimal to restrictive. Students that don't pass the class do so for a number of reason most of them circumstances beyond the students' control. However, a small group of students simply refuses to take the mandated classes. Perhaps they don't agree with the policy. Perhaps they don't like required coursework. Perhaps they simply don't like to bow to authority. For whatever reason, they don't follow the policy. A small group of them will then take issue with the university for blocking their registration, as they were told would happen. I hate to confess that I have often wanted to inform these students, "We told you so!" or "Why did this happen? Oh, it's because YOU didn't follow the policy." Needless to say, these statements would never make the situation better.

So what do you say when someone is upset or frustrated? First, they may just be venting. Just remember that they are not angry at YOU, they are just being angry TO you. While never a pleasant experience, understanding that it's nothing personal can help you listen without defending or retaliating. Once they've got it out of their system, often these people are more than willing to listen to what you need them to do to solve the situation. The trick is not to take it personally.

Regardless of whether or not the person is venting, the best way to help them is pretty simple. The first step is to apologize. This does not mean that you agree with them or their frustration, just that you are sorry that they are frustrated. This is also a good time to acknowledge their emotions. It does no good to tell someone, "You shouldn't be frustrated about that." It is similar to telling someone, "That doesn't hurt" when they are injured. Apologizing helps them understand that you wish they weren't frustrated and expresses empathy.

Second, you want to make sure you listen to them. Like I mentioned last week, often people don't know exactly what kind of help they need. Make sure you listen so you can identify the concerns and separate the facts from the emotions. Remember that listening also means asking appropriate questions, but don't rush them. Let the person talk uninterrupted.

Third, you want to actually remedy the situation. You do everything you can to get them the help they need. If what they need done isn't in your department, you get them specific information and help them contact those that can. Never let a student leave your service without knowing what needs to be done, by who, and when in order to get their solution. This includes things that they need to do. Make sure that you are attentive, informative, and helpful. Using the Arbringer Institutes' ideas from Leadership and Self-Deception or The Anatomy of Peace are very useful in all steps of the process, but are of particular note while you are helping the person. It's important not just to provide assistance, but to make sure that you are doing it for the right reason. Wrong reasons include: to get them out of your office, because it's your job, because you want to earn a service award. The only right reason to help someone is because you want to make their experiences better as a human being. Anybody who has been served can tell when some is doing something for the right reason and when they are looking to get something out of it. Do everything you can for the person and be as accommodating as possible. This does not mean to let them walk over you, but simply to make sure that you have done everything that you are able to do to help them.

Lastly, you will want to thank them for bringing the situation to your attention. This is a great final step as it closes the interaction with an interest in the future. You are telling them that now that you know about this you will be better able to help them and others in the future. If you had to refer them elsewhere, you can also ask them to report back to you when and how their situation is resolved.

When I did sales training for one of my jobs (it turns out I'm a horrible salesmen) they talked about how there is a percentage of people who will never buy the product and a percentage of people who will always buy. As a salesperson, your focus is the percentage in the middle who might. The same applies to resolving problems. There is a portion of the people you deal with who will never be satisfied with your service. The trick is to not let it get to you and make sure that you give everyone the same level of service because you won't know who wouldn't be pleased until you've done everything you can.

The first of two situations: How to get help

A bit of a continuation of my topic form last week, this week I've talked with a number of students looking for help. They were frustrated, disappointed, or in some other way discontent about their situation. In one case the student said that "he kept on getting the runaround" and that "nobody would help him." Two others were facing consequences from literally "not making the grade" they needed. Both of the situations are ones that many people, myself included, face in different ways throughout our lives. It was thinking about these that prompted this particular musing.

In the first situation the student didn't feel like anyone was able to help him. When I asked him what the situation was he related what a lot of students would like to know: What classes go well together to provide a balanced workload? In some ways this is similar to when students ask what classes are "easy." I used to get after students for asking for easy classes until I found myself asking my master's advisor the same questions. Most university personnel don't have an ethical problem answering this questions. It's not like we are banned from endorsing one professor or class over another. The reason why advisors say they can't answer this question is simply because it's impossible. Easy is relative. What one person finds easy another one finds hard. Anybody who has received a personal recommendation about this or that book, movie, game, restaurant, college, person to date, etc. knows that while the person recommending may have good intentions they may not know enough to provide a perfect match. Sometimes they get close and sometimes they are way off - it depends on how well they know you, how long, etc.

Many students expect advisors to know the "best" schedule of classes for them to take. However, I don't have many interactions with professors, have never (in the majority of cases) sat in on lectures or taken their class, and have no idea what the student's preferences are in teaching style. How can I recommend a class to a complete stranger when I don't know anything about the person or the class? It would be nice if I did and it's not always difficult. At my last school I did know many of the professors by sight and name and we had a small enough faculty that I heard a lot of things from students. However, I still felt very uncomfortable when students asked me for recommendations. I explained this all to the student and referred him to ratemyprofessors.com, where our university has a pretty decent following. In some ways this is the easiest way to find out about professors and classes as the reviews are done by students who have to say what class they took. I still tell students to take the reviews with a grain of salt as what someone like somebody else hates. The student then asked how he would go about meeting with an advisor. Figuring he was just looking to talk to someone else (or perhaps he thought I was just a secretary because I was manning the front desk) I asked him what kind of help he was looking for.

That question, "What kind of help do you want?" is an important one. I think that when we are looking for help it's important that we answer that question first as it will help us narrow things down. The kind of help he was looking for was basically a variation of what he asked me for - what classes should he take together. I told him who he needed to talk to for his degree and suggested a way to approach the appointment so he should get better results. What is this way, students ask. Try to ask specific questions whenever possible. The easier you make it for someone to help you the more likely they are to be able to. If you ask someone, "Can you help me?" without preamble they will probably not be able to until you tell them more.

This has run a little long, so I'll continue with the 2nd situation next week.

An academic case study: Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan.

My family and I watched Monsters University last week. I enjoyed the film and it brought back a couple of memories about my own college experiences. In professional life I've worked for four different universities and colleges of varying types and have met with hundreds of students. I'm not into the thousands yet, but I'm sure I'll get there someday. I thought that Mike and Sully in the film were a lot like real students that I've met with before.

Students that have Mike's enthusiasm are some of my favorite but not because they are generally well prepared for their appointments and don't have any surprises. I take a sadistic pleasure in asking high achieving students about the one imperfect grade they have. I find it fascinating how much ire an A- grade can generate from someone who has straight As otherwise. I do this very, very rarely and only with students that I am comfortable with. I get the feeling that Mike might prove to be a bit difficult. His desire to become a scarer coupled with his lack of scariness is like when I've met with students who wanted to enter a program that required a 2.75 and had a 2.0. Those circumstances are some of the more challenging, but not impossible. I freely admit that there are many situations that students can recover from. I've even guided students who overcame a .75 GPA deficiency to qualify for the program they wanted. It takes time and effort and is done regularly. However, I also acknowledge that often the challenges require more than the person can or is willing to invest. I did like how the movie showed how Mike was able to achieve his dream in a way that was conducive to his abilities. As I think about Mike's desire to become a scarer and the position that we know he ends up in I think that he enjoys his eventual position more than he would enjoy being the scarer he wanted to be. He has an mind for analysis and he likes be in control. Really, as a scarer he is the one taking orders. Mike did a good job of refining his dream to match his abilities and his experience. Much like many students all over the country do when they have their first dream crushed or bubble popped.

Sully, Mr. James P. Sullivan, exhibits a trait that get to see in many, many different students. He has a sense of entitlement that he has to overcome. He is not just this feeling. I liked the roundness that he had and the depth of his internal conflicts. In many ways, he overcomes his entitlement fairly early in the movie and then dukes it out with his other challenges such as dishonesty, depression, self-doubt, and anger management. Many say that entitlement is a feature of the Millennial Generation, which is the one that is currently moving through college to the workplace. I've attended a least a dozen panels, workshops, or presentations where the topic was working with millennial students. Entitlement can be a big deterrent in a student's education though. I heard a student say that he intended to "talk his way through college, just like he did high school." At the end of the school year I came across a letter of probation in that student's file. Somehow I didn't think he was going to talk his way through a class whose professor presented "10 reasons why this class is not for you" as the first lecture. As I mentioned, Sully learns pretty early in the film that what he thought was a given required more effort from him than just being there. Once he got that figured out, he did a pretty decent job at learning how to succeed.

Mike and Sully were two very different students who have very different problems. Like unhappy families, students with difficulties all struggle with different things. In meeting with students for petitions or probation / suspension intervention I've never heard the same story twice. Every situation under the sun is possible. One of my favorites was when I asked a student what was his biggest academic difficulty. He replied, "I'm a great student when I'm not in jail!" To me getting thrown in jail means that you're not a good student, but what do I know. Regardless of what difficulties students have, my job (and every advisor's job) is to help students succeed. So when (not if) you start to have difficulty, don't hesitate to see an advisor. We would love to help you get through it and it is far better to meet before things go to pot than afterwards.

The Unknown Expectation of College

This is a topic that I used to teach in a full day lecture and have presented a profession conference. I'm a big fan of cognitive theory and the things we can gain from it. While this isn't one of the "student development" theories it is a very real one when it comes to college. It also explains why algebra is required for college degrees. You might have seen it before in regards to note taking, asking questions, but I think that a basic understanding of this concept teaches students what their professors expect from them.

This pyramid was developed by Benjamin Bloom back in the 1950s and is referred to as Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning. The basic idea of the taxonomy is that not all learning is equal. As we learn new things we progress through the different levels of leaning. We cannot move into higher levels of learning without first achieving the levels below them. The levels are broken down as follows:

Knowledge (basic learning) - being able to repeat information as it was given to you. Defining terms, listing components, repeating concepts you have heard.

Understanding (simple comprehension) - the ability to explain in your own words. Taking the information out of context and replaying it to someone else.

Application (initiation of action) - using the information to accomplish a task or other such action. seeing how the information works in the context of the material.

Analysis (Deep understanding) - breaking the information down into its respective components and seeing how the parts interact. Also, seeing how the information fits into the greater context and outside of the initial context. Identifying relationships between the information and itself and other topics and facts.

Synthesis - (deep application, creation) - using the information to create new ideas, conclusions and applications. Using the component pieces to produce new ends and means.

Evaluation (defending your conclusions and actions) - having the ability to defend your conclusions and actions to others using clear and developed arguments and evidences.

The best way to break down the levels is with the use of action verbs - verbs that require action or demonstrate clear objectives. These verbs are often found in the assignments, tests, and research proposals that professors give. Being able to associate the verb with the level helps students understand what kind of depth or quality the professor is looking for. There are many lists of action verbs, but I like this one from Clemson University. It's got a nice layout and a good list of verbs.

Now, the expectation that I explain to college students. In high school the basic standard of teaching and learning is that students are expected to demonstrate that they know and understand the material as it was presented to them. Teachers and students do not progress much beyond the first to layers of the pyramid. However, when student arrive at college, the professors will often times help them achieve those same levels of a topic, but then will expect work on the higher levels. They try to give the tools to help students move from one to the next, but they are not content if students just linger in the levels of knowledge and understanding. This is often why new freshman will complain that their tests are not fair. "The test was about stuff that we didn't cover in class." or "I don't remember seeing this in class." These responses are often the case because the student leaned the material on a minimal level but the professor is testing their higher level learning.

What does this have to do with algebra? If the goal of college is to get people to think on a higher level then algebra is the natural gateway. Example:

Knowledge level - Define addition: calculating the total of two or more amounts (citation)

Understanding level - Explain addition: what you get when you combine two numbers

Application level - 2+2=? answer: 4

Analysis level - 2+?=4 answer: 2

Basic algebra, even in such a simple calculation, elevates a persons thinking - requiring them to analyze, break down, and find the relationships in the equation. When my old math teach said, "This is to make you think" the desire was not just a cognitive process. Bloom shows us that not all thinking is the same. This is to get you to think deeper then you might normally. This is to stretch your brain so that it doesn't return to its original, limited state, but to enlarge your capabilities. Like I said last week "This is to make you think" is the most accurate response to the question "why do I need to study algebra." i also think that it is the most valid and the best. This is why colleges set a standard on the minimum level of mathematics students must complete. So they can be sure that students are going to have an opportunity to think on those levels that can actually empower students to be proactive and not just reactive.

When will I ever use this?

I've commented on Mathematics in the past but some recent discussion are moving me towards it again. Last time I discussed reasons people may despise math. This time, I would like to look at why math is considered a critical skill college - or at least critical enough to be required for general education. The most well known course for the Quantitative Literacy requirement is MATH 1050 - College Algebra, but it may be one of up to five course options. The office I work in has been tasked with enforcing the math completion policy for our university, so I hear plenty of students complete about, berate, and in so many other way despise the policy, math, math teaching, and everything else related. As the messengers of this policy our staff has be metaphorically shot at on a regular basis. This was the catalyst of the previous post, but I would like to provide an answer to those students who may ask, "When will I ever use this?" It is a fair question and deserves an answer.

My high school math teacher, when confronted with this question used to say, "You won't [use this]. This is to make you think." I feel that this is the most accurate answer to the proffered question. There is a lot in mathematics that is either specialized for specific calculations, or they are more abstract concepts that are the foundation for those specific calculations. With that said, that instructor taught my trigonometry class and as well as other classes required for calculus. Algebra, the basis for all other advanced mathematics, is used more often. I would like to split the usage into two areas: unconscious calculations and intentional calculations.

Unconscious calculations are the ones that you do without even thinking about it. Every time you get in a car and drive you brain is processing velocity, acceleration, position, distance, and time equations faster than your reflexes can even respond. The same is true of any physical activity or sport - to catch a ball is an exercise in those same factors so you know where to move your hand. The world you live in can be described in numbers, vectors, shapes, solids, and velocities. Without your brain's ability to do math people would never had killed enough food to evolve past subsistence level of living. All of this is algebra. This is not to say that if you have difficulty in solving algebra problems in your math book that you are a bad driver. The math that our brain does without thinking about it is intuitive. But if we consider those calculations that we do intuitively - then the answer to our questions is, "Every moment of every day."

Intentional calculations are the ones we actively choose to do or the ones that our math classes require us to do. Even thought these are a active choice there are certain calculations we do all the time without thinking about it. Anytime you look at a clock to see how much time you have, you are doing algebra.

current time + (how much time) = target time. 

Any time you use money, particularly cash, you use algebra. This is very true when figuring out a tip, a discount, or other promotions.

available funds - purchase price = new available funds

original price * discount percentage = new price 

Factor that into the original equation:
available funds - (original price * discount percentage) = new available funds

These two examples may be obvious to most people. Those same people may come back and say that use calculations do not require exponents or fractions. That is true, for the most part - some purchases may be very complex. Even if such calculations are not very complex by studying algebra you are practicing skills that you use every day. The more practice you have the better you get at them, the better you get the more consistently accurate you are and the fast you are. Until such equations, no matter how complex may be.

There are other areas where intentional calculations come into play. Many hobbies that people do use math, including: wood workings (or other building hobbies - measuring, scale, etc.), cooking (one of the few places that people intentionally calculate fractions), gambling (probability), and many other games of all kinds (angles in strategy games, keeping and maximizing score, fields of view, the list goes on.) Again, these may not require exponents or logs, etc, but those develop complexity and give practice. You cannot be good at something unless you are stretched.

The last place that I want to mention that people use algebra every day is in problem solving. I don't think it's a coincidence that the individual calculations that we are required to solve in math classes are referred to as math problems and that the process of resolving difficulties as problem solving. I don't know which came first, perhaps it's an example of  the chicken vs. the egg, but regardless math problems and problem solving go hand in hand. Just like we can describe the vast majority of our physical world in terms of mathematics many of our social, emotional, and mental situations can also be labeled in terms of mathematics.

If X happens, then Y will occur. But if I don't want Y to occur, then I must do Z.

Anytime you have a situation with any number of possible outcomes the ability to reason is key. That reasoning is often termed logic and is the basic language of mathematics. The ability that you gain in learning how to arrange, manipulate, and see the relationships in  numbers translates to other kinds of problems as well. So even though you may never use numbers in your future equations, algebra is again proven to be helpful in everyday interactions and situations.

Perhaps next week I'll go into the biggest reason that math is taught in college in what I call the unknown expectation of college. But until then, I think this is sufficient.

The modern Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Working in education gives me a lot of opportunities to meet, talk with, and learn more about students. Over the last couple of years I have seen a real trend that is disturbing. One of my colleagues compared it to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Like the odious potion in the book it can literally transform students from gentle, inspiring persons into hate filled, aggressive, belligerent alter-egos. It is considered the ultimate four letter word of academia and is the most infamous curriculum ever imposed upon students. It is math.

I have heard math referred to as "the bane of [a student's] existence," "impossible," "useless," "a waste of time," and "[a student's] worst subject." When talking about math or asking why they have to take it many students are rude, angry, upset, and demanding. I know of no other topic in academia that has such a negative stigma as math. I've seen cases when students would rather wait an hour to have an opportunity to complain to someone, try to work around the system, or rant to a person then perform a simple task (such as watching a 30 minute online presentation) in relation to their math requirement. I have seen people turn from Jekyll to Hyde because of math. I want to know why!

This is a conversation I've had with one of my coworkers several times. She helps keep me grounded because we have had different experiences, have opposing views, and have different perceptions on math and math education. With that said we do agree on a variety of things relating to math (how it might be improved, difficulties in the system, etc) but we do approach it from two very different starting positions. It was she that described her own experiences as Jekyll and Hyde and found herself puzzled by the fact. I won't try to recreate our conversations here, but I do want to express some of the musings that resulted from them. The overarching question that I want to know is: Why do people hate math so much?

Is it because math is difficult? Math is an abstract concept used to describe our real world. You don't see the number three in nature, the same way you don't see the letter A going for a walk. Just as letters are used to provide a visual component to our spoken language, math is used as a medium to express real world patterns and systems. There is plenty of debate on if numbers actually exist, or if math is humans attempting to explain the universe or is it a natural part of the universe we discover, but the bottom line is that it may not be a natural way to think for many people. It is not often intuitive to think in terms of x and y. And because it is difficult to see how the quadratic equation relates to anything you deal with in daily life, many people question it's practicality. Without a clear objective use of it people lose interest, don't remember it well, and generally struggle with learning it. Yet, many people do hard things all the time and continue doing them despite them being hard. Athletes train in rough conditions, computer techs debug code to get their programs working, musicians practice long hours, artist and writers struggle through blocks of creativity. People run marathons, hike mountains, fight wars, win noble prizes, discover stars, cure plagues, go to law school. Our society holds people who overcome difficulty in high honor. Couches tell players to push past pain. Therapists tell clients to work through their problems. And heroes of all kinds tell children to reach for the stars. Yet if the difficulty is math, people are prone to give up, give in, and accept the idea that "I can't do it." So, I think we can discount it being difficult as a reason why it is so hated. Most things are difficult and we get through just fine.

Maybe it is the"impractical" nature of mathematics? As I've described above, it is not a natural way for many people to think and because you will rarely ever see a situation that calls for a logarithmic function there is little use in remembering it, even for the test you have on Friday. However, a couple of years ago a law maker in Utah argued that a liberal arts degrees was a "degree to nowhere." And thinking back on your own education when have you ever used those facts you learned about the Civil War in high school or college history? When have you ever listed the romantic era composers or painters? Since when has world geography, to quote Fred son of Fanny sister to Ebenezer, "put a scrap of money in [your] pocket?" There are many other "impractical" topics out there. In fact, if you talk to enough people you will find that every topic is impractical in one way or another, yet people have studied them for years many times without complaining, and many times while complaining, but rarely with the vim and vigor of the utter detestation that people have for math. Now I've mentioned how it is the facts that are often impractical and I stand by it, but I firmly state that the skills students learn in the classes that I disparaged above are very important. Yet, math contains both skills and facts that are relevant to everyday life. From telling time to figuring out a tip you use small math facts and skills everyday. So, not only are people studying "impractical" topics all the time, but math is more practical than many others. As Adam Savage would say, I think this one is busted.

I've heard lots of students say that they've had negative experiences with math. Generally a good health (or rather unhealthy) dose of negativity will jade most people. This is one that I can't necessarily disagree with, but I can claim that it is not also the case, nor do I believe it can be the only cause. My own experience with math in junior high is not a positive one. I failed it in seventh grade and was required by my mother to lug a math text home and new an set of problems every day before I could do anything else. An entire summer of doing pre and beginning algebra before I could enjoy the nice weather outside or books and games inside. Also, for both my seventh and eight years my calculators broke early in the school year. Any advanced computations I had to work on on paper with pencil. I went through learning my basic algebra without technical assistance. Geometry  was the same until we got to sine/cosine/tangent. I didn't have a list of ratio tables, or I'm sure I would have had to do that by hand too. Despite this, I never hated math. I hated homework, but I had to do that for all of my classes. I didn't begin to really enjoy math and become an advocate for it until college, during which ironically I never had a math class, but my negative experiences in seventh and eight grades did not cause me to despise math. Now I fully acknowledge that my experience and me as a person is far different from everyone else. Again, I do feel that a sever or series of negative experiences this may cause people to hate math. But what is it can causes many students to have those negative experiences? As part of the Jekyll and Hyde transformation many students are not hesitant to complain about math instructors. Out of all of the instructors I'm told about, math teachers rank the highest in the number and extend of "bad teachers." Not that they are the only source of negative experiences, but they appear to be a big one. Let's look at them for a second.

I think it is very clear that math teachers have an effect on whether students enjoy math or hate it. Students that enjoy math often refer to a teacher that supported and helped them through difficult parts or "made math fun." Students that turn into Mr. Hyde at the mention of math often will complain about the quality of math teaching or refer to a particular instructor as being useless, unhelpful, bad, etc. I have to point out that many students are unwilling or do not want to claim responsibility for their grades which leads to statements like "the teacher failed me" or "he teacher was bad," but I don't want to dismiss teachers and instructors that are not good teachers. While there are students that do not understand that they are required to participate in the learning process there are also teachers that do not provide the support necessary to give students a fighting chance of learning the material. My wife, Angel, who coordinates math tutors at a branch campus of the university we work for felt that the lack of support from instructors is the biggest part. A supportive instructor can help students through difficult times, find practicality and creative means within math, and tends to provide more positive experiences than negative. Angel's own experience was negative and then positive. In sixth grade she was told that she would never succeed in math and to choose something that wouldn't require it. This simply hardened her resolve to prove that teacher wrong. In junior high she had an instructor that supported her in math and helped her learn it. Since then she has completed multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations which is the math base for a degree in mechanical engineering. She loves math, even though she's always had difficulty with it. Instructors have an undeniable effect on their students.

And this leads to what I ultimately believe is the reason that math is such a hated topic. We hate it because we have been taught to hate it. One of the criticisms I've heard of an education program I once worked for was that students who dislike math went into elementary education. Those students became teachers who then went on to teach math. Because they did not like it themselves they instilled that dislike into their students. Math was a chore for them, so it because a chore for the children. etc. Also, think about the perception that people who are good at math have. They are seen as nerd, geeks, or out of touch. There are very few positive perceptions of mathematicians. Anti-social, awkward, shy, naive, unpopular, etc. Who would want to be good at math when there are very few positive role models. Even the discussion of a student having excessive negative experiences in math is a classic example of psychological conditioning. To boot you have stereotypes associated with math - "women and minority populations are bad at math," "math is hard," "math is useless," etc. Ironically, the government is clamoring for more nerds. Industry is calling for more engineers, computer programmers, scientist,  mathematicians. From what I can see, society is both begging for and discouraging people who like math. Generally it's not the same people doing both, but both messages are getting across.

I do know of groups that are doing cool things with math and science. Numberphile, ViHart, Smarter Every Day, Veritasium, Sixty Symbols, Periodic Videos, Minute Physics, Purple Math, Khan Academy and many other discuss math and science (often with the math) and show some really cool things. I'm glad these folks are out that there are resources available to help students learn. I've watched some of their videos with my children (ages 5 and 3). I think the best way to end the hate (and thus increase the "nerds") is to teach that math is not bad. Yes, it can be hard but it can also be interesting, practical, and even (heaven forbid) fun. Math is a critical skill that develops our creative and critical thinking abilities and helps us make sense of abstract and concrete ideas. Stop the negative self talk. Stop the hate. Stop the blogger from harping on this again. 

Talking in the depths of the ocean

I recently listened to Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy on Audible.com. I tried reading it when I was younger (like in high school) and just couldn't make it through the first chapter. It is a large book, about 650 pages, but that isn't what did it. It was just how technical it was. Clancy is well known for this and I found a similar difficulty in reading The Hunt for Red October, although I made it about half way through that one. I am only really able to enjoy the books if I listen to them. I don't want to get into why it's easier to listen then read these books but it's true. As a student of Russian and military history it is a great story about how a situation that causes the Cold War to become a very, very hot one. Despite the land war being fought in West Germany, the USSR needs to close the Atlantic so that the NATO troops can't be supported by American equipment. The troops can get across by air but the material to fight the war (ordnance, munitions, tanks, etc.) have to be shipped. So, just as the German's tried unsuccessfully to do in WWII, the USSR is attempting to block US ship access to Europe. Only this time, the Americans are at a disadvantage...

As a large part of the book that hinges on the navy, particularly submarine and anti-submarine warfare, I thought that I would dive (yes, pun intended) into a topic that I was thinking about a little while ago - submarines. You may remember my mention of Dr. Tim Wolters, my former professor who taught aviation and aeronautics. Last I E-mailed him, he included one of his publications, "Early Experiments in Submarine Wireless" (The Submarine Review, July 2011, 119-129). That got me thinking about the dynamics of submarines. Particularly how they interact with the world around them.

My first interactions with submarines was actually the Red Storm Rising video game. that my father owed and played. Years later I would play, Jane's Fleet Command and it drove me crazy that when I would give orders to my subs, they would run deep and I couldn't change their orders for a period of time. This is simply because salt water blocks, scrambles, or otherwise causes problems for most communication systems. Dr. Wolters' article was on experiments using wireless telegraph to try to communicate, but in the end the antenna would need to be out of the water (Wolters, 2011, p. 123). Wolters points out that during the Cold War, the US developed a towed buoy that contained communications antenna, but that the idea was originally tried in 1915 (ibid). According to The Naval Institute guide to World Naval Weapon Systems by Norman Friedman (5th edition, 2006, Naval Institute Press), towed buoys and antenna are still used, some with great success, but they are still limited by depth and speed (p. 53). This means that a submarine has to want to talk to you for you to talk to it.

The Navy is continuing to search for ways to better communicate with submarines. The better they can communicate the better they can be used. For instance, in Red Storm Rising the USS Chicago a US nuclear attach submarine, is approaching a Russian surface ship task force. They are in an ideal position to eliminate the Russian flagship and deal a sever blow when the fleet wigs out. In the confusion, Chicago is able to launch three missiles, but is unable to even record the results before they are driven off by anti-submarine tactics. They figure that another sub had slunk in for a shot and had spoiled theirs. Had the subs been able to communicate they could have coordinated their attacks and dealt a heavy blow to the surface fleet. As it was, Chicago was unable to exploit their position or even ascertain the damage done. Communication is very important for successful operations. I won't tell you what happens when the captain of the Chicago does when he meets the man who spoiled his shot.





The latest innovation that is underway is the submarine laser communication (SLC) project. Back in January of 2010 the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) put out a challenge to develop a "blue-spectrum submarine laser communications system able to link submerged submarines with nearby aircraft." In October of that same year, the contract was awarded to QinetiQ set to be tested in "naval exercise in mid 2012." DARPA has very little to say about project from what I found. But I can't blame them for being quiet about this kind of project. I was unable to find much information on how the device worked during the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) last year, but it appears that it was tested during the exercise. The fact that nothing else has come out can mean a number of things. Many would assume that it means the device was a success and therefore now top secret. Or, just as likely, that they are still reviewing the results. Either way, it may take awhile more before we hear anything. Granted, if you serve on a sub, you may hear about it a lot sooner and hopefully, you won't have to come to periscope depth to do so.




One last submarine story. I got this one from The Reader's Digest, the "Humor in Uniform" section. The writer had two friends in the navy, one served on a destroyer, the other on a submarine. The surface man commonly referred to the submariner as a "Bubble-head," a commonly used term for crewmen of a sub. When the writer asked his submariner friend if he minded, the friend replied that he did not. The writer asked what submariners called surface men. The answer came: "Targets."

The Ludi Romani

All hail the mighty Juppiter Optimus Maximus!

This photo was taken in 2002 as a feature of a news article from Utah State University's Hard News Cafe about the annual Ludi Romani (Roman Games) held at USU. Juppiter a.k.a. Dr. Mark Damen and his wife Juno a.k.a. Dr. Fran Titchener host the Games every year for the last approximately 20 years. I assure you, if Juppiter does not inspire fear in you from this picture, it is only because he's waiting to surprise you later.

The Ludi Romani is a cross between Risk and role-playing where students are able to take on roles of Senators, kings, generals, noble women, etc and plot, scheme, betray, ally, and generally have fun with and against each other until one faction comes out on top at the Battle of Actium. Traditionally the factions have been based around the first and second year Latin students, but in years past you just never know who's going to team up. In addition to the students playing the roles of mortals faculty and alumni play the part of deities each with their own power and abilities. Often while the mortals are plotting against themselves the deities are plotting against everybody. All in all, it is a fun experience.

As the Ludi Romani is put on by my old department my musing for this week deals with my education and its worth. In addition, as part of my career advising class I had to do it for an assignment. I have a BA in History with a minor in Russian. My senior capstone paper was entitled The White Tigers of Tianjin: fascist elements in the  propaganda of the Anti-Communist  Committee of Russian Emigrants in Northern China from 1937 to 1941. I presented it at the regional Phi Alpha Theta conference and won two awards, Best Asian Paper and Longest Title. I'm proud of both of them. You can guess how many times people have asked me to read that paper. (Twice - which is probably twice more than you thought.)

Many people question what you can do with a degree in history. I've even heard it implied that a definition of a successful history graduate is one that has a job. Most people think that the only occupation for history majors is in education. While I work in education, I do not teach in a classroom. In general, the humanities and arts tend to be "the degrees you can't do anything with." To this I say, quoting an old employer, "No, these are the degrees you can do what ever you want with."

As a bearer of one of a "degree to nowhere" I realized fairly early on that my degree did not fit into a nice little career. Accountants get jobs as accountants. Engineers get engineering jobs (I know - I've got six of them in my close family). Business majors go into business. History......well, there's teaching? To be fair, when I first started, I wanted to go into teaching. That is why I choose history. However, as I learned that I didn't want to teach, it didn't make me want to change my major. Perhaps that was because I was planning on graduate school (I wanted to teach college). But I also think it had something to do with my boss at the time - the one I quoted above. In many ways you can do whatever you want with degrees in humanities and art. This is because it's not the facts that you learn that are important. It's the skills.

Going back to my capstone paper as an example. As I've mentioned, I've only been asked to read that paper twice - once for my class and once for the conference I attend. No one else has been interested in the facts that I learned when I did it. The ACCRENC has not had a meeting in decades  The parades are done, the fascist propaganda has not stirred anyone in ages. However the research and consolidating I did in order to write that paper has enabled me to secure employment. That paper is the result of over 100 pages of translated newspapers (I was not the only translator, but I knew them all), three published works on fascism and it's tenants, and a semesters worth of critical thinking, extrapolation, and reflection. The end result: 10 pages and 51 footnotes of concise material. That is a skill that can be used almost anywhere. It doesn't matter the topic, the skill is the same.

I think that this skill is particularly useful in this day and age as the world is changing so rapidly. You may be familiar with the Did you Know video on YouTube. While there raise many points, perhaps one of the most relevant is the one made at the 38 seconds mark:

The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist, using technologies that haven't been invented, in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet.

 How is anybody going to be able to keep up with the demand of this changing world unless they can learn and adapt? The skills learned in the humanities and arts allow students to look at the world around them and make sense of it. To see what is there and how it has changed and is changing. These skills are not to be discounted quickly as many would. These skills are not unique to a limited number of disciplines. They can be developed by anyone. I will say that many of these "degrees to nowhere" do indeed lead to critical skills that are important to the future.