It’s so bizarre to me that since the forced online learning movement started, so many math faculty—and not just at my institution—have been worried about cheating.
Why now?
Saturday morning in grad school with a study buddy. We were math people.
We as mathematicians seem practically hell-bent on removing the phrase “I’m just not a math person” from students’ vocabularies. Maybe that’s why they scream it so loudly and defiantly?
Math has so many tactical advantages over sports and the arts. Math is cheaper—you don’t really need special equipment or a whole lot of space or, unless a pandemic necessitates it, technology in the classroom. And politicians and administrators alike are convinced we need more STEM—our programs, unlike sports and arts, will not get cut any time soon. Yet while getting students to want to continue in math is like pulling teeth, they all would love to play a sport or dance.
It makes you wonder what they’re doing that we’re not.
I have some ideas.
Dragonfruit martinis. Made in calmer times.
Screw lemonade. If life gives you lemons, find someone who got vodka and make a martini.
