Maff

[plumtreeblossom]

On Monday I begin the 100 level math class that wasn't offered over the summer. This morning I planned to spend several hours hunting for the math textbook I bought back in May. But I lifted one stack of notebooks and there was the math book. Mkay then, ready.

Cambridge College seems to think that we all have terrible phobia-level fear of math, or we wouldn't be in the 100 class. I don't fear math -- not at all. I'm just ignorant of it because I've preferred to fill my brain with other things and let Excel do my math for me. Fear and ignorance often go hand in hand, but not in my case with math. I'm not afraid of it, I just haven't learned it yet. It's only numbers.

I'm only taking the one class this semester. It's crunch time at work, so that works out well.

Comments

[muffyjo]

It sounds like you've chosen your workload well and are looking forward to your adventures. All good stuff! Go you!

And math, i'm with you...excel spreadsheets for the win. It's not scary stuff, it's just that we've developed so many better tools.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

If you can make Excel do fancy and elaborate things, then you know math. Excel can do arithmetic and has all sorts of functions, but knowing which ones to use where requires some understanding of the math.

[necturus.livejournal.com]

What sort of math, if you don't mind my asking?

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Remedial math, actually. I never took math past the 10th grade and neither have most of the students at Cambridge, so this is a review of basic arithmatic, and probably an into to the basic concepts of algebra. Algebra was the last math I took in high school, and that was 30 years ago, so this low level course is needed. Some students test out of it, but I didn't!

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

If you have adults in a math class, it seems like a reasonable assumption that many are trying to get over a fear of math. Certainly seems to be plenty of fear around numbers anyhow.