My favorite thing about teaching math was puzzling out what was going on inside students' heads when they weren't understanding something.
Math is a special subject, because we know it makes logical sense, so misunderstandings definitively point to some cognitive malfunction.
Yeah. I think I only realized a few semesters into university how math actually makes totally sense. Most of the times, we just assume things that are wrong but we don't even realize that we're assuming stuff.
It's was always an eye opener when you figured out a proof or something. It was always this feeling that you're not suddenly smart now, you're just less stupid than before.
reply
"You're not smart. You're just less stupid than you used to be."
That's a powerful way to reframe learning.
reply
That's how I walk through life lol
I'm not smart, everyone else is just even more stupid than me!
reply
Whenever I'm in a new stressful situation, I remind myself that the environment I'm in was designed for stupid people to be able to navigate it.
It seems like we think alike.
reply
Oh, that does sound indeed familiar. Too much handholding in this world as if we can't make our own decisions and learn from mistakes.
reply