Ack, I have to live with tons of such memories.  With this recent fall
out with my parents over the fact that we are not building our house to
100% of my dad's specifications, I have been doing a lot of soul
searching.  Especially with Dennis being away, and then doing these
manual labour jobs where you have all day to think and think and think.
But I think it's a good thing.  I really feel like all my life I've been
trying to get approval and validation from my dad.  I need to accept the
fact that I will never receive it and I also need to get over my need
for it.
Obviously I know that my dad has some major problems.  My mom too, of
course.  Her whole identity is wrapped up in a "poor me" syndrome where
she is bullied and intimidated by my dad but loves to complain about him
behind his back to anyone who will listen.  But she never does anything
about it.
People have been telling me that my parents are unreasonably controlling
and that as an adult child, they should just wish for me to be happy,
that's all.  But I have realized that happiness is a frou-frou concept
that my parents do not believe in.  And of course they don't believe in
it because they have never been happy themselves.
Their world is always so angry and bitter, full of recriminations, what
if's and disappointments.  Nothing is ever good enough and there is this
bizarre distrust of all other people.  Do you know that my parents have
never had a relationship with friends that has lasted more than a couple
of years?  They always meet new people, do tons of stuff with them but
inevitably fall out over something stupid, usually my dad giving advice
and them not following it.  Then my dad gets mad, vows never to talk to
them again and forbids my mom from contacting said people.
This is what is happening to me right now.  It's been a few weeks since
I've heard from them, this will probably stretch into months if not
years.  How stupid of me to have even questioned his suggestions re: our
house.  I should have known better and just replied thanking him for the
info and not said anything further about it.
Ah well, gotta look on the bright side.  At least this frees up more
free time because I won't have to email them anymore ;-)

While I don't know Britta's father, he may well have *tried* to teach her.
Like others on this group, I've suffered through the attentions of actual
teachers, particularly at the University level, who really tried to teach
me but suffered from a combination of lack of knowledge of teaching (and
it is partly a learned skill, although some people are 'born teachers')
and complete bafflement at my reaction when they've simplified the problem
until it is (to them) like 1 + 1 = 2, and I *still* don't get it! It's
often very difficult for such people to realize that their 'simple'
approach contains a lot of assumptions and maybe problem-solving
techniques they do automatically and a beginner, especially one who is
weak in the subject, has never heard of.

But they're trying to teach. They just aren't doing a good job of it!

Interesting. Is this just for a masters degree? Not for undergrads,
right? Never heard of this for bachelors degrees.

I know a lot of important work in math has been done in the countries
where those languages are spoken, so I guess you need to be able to
access the original works in the native language - is that the idea?
But I'm surprised that most of them have not been translated already.

I wonder what's being done in Israel these days that puts Hebrew on the
list? That country hasn't been around very long, so these must be pretty
recent developments.

Joyce

There's been a tendency in some places for quite some time to teach
things in smaller  chunks  - instead of testing a large amount of
knowledge at the end of the year, small amounts are tested after a
semester or even a unit. This may work well for material that comes in
discrete chunks, like studying a particular novel or country, but IMO
it's a disaster when it comes to a subject like math or chemistry which
is hierarchial in nature, and learning the more advanced stuff can be
impossible if you don't remember the basics. And teaching in small
chunks encourages students to learn something for the test, and then
forget it. Then the teacher, or another teacher, tries to teach
something that assumes they remember factoring or what a mole is, and
the students haven't a clue and will swear they never heard of it
before.

That's pretty much what I just said - adults who want to learn math
are more motivated, ie, they work harder.

"Innumerate" - did you read that book by John Allen Paulos, "Innumeracy"?
It talks about the very thing you're addressing. He had some interesting
examples. I actually much preferred the book "Universe in a Teacup" by
KC Cole. She covered a lot of the same ground, but without the "attitude".
He was judgemental about the math "idiots" out there, whereas she looked
at our difficulties with certain mathematical concepts as part of the
human condition, although something we can improve if we want to.

It's a shame, really, because even if that skill probably isn't going to
be used much, it really helps to train the brain for future mathematical
studies. (And actually, I do long division all the time. I don't always
have a calculator handy when I need to know a particular result.)

He was a lot worse than an idiot, IMO.

Joyce

I don't think that's true at all.  I think that many kids are poor in
math because they have never had a teacher that they could connect with
and got labeled as "poor in math".

My parents never let it slide.  My dad, who is great at math, was aghast
that I wasn't doing well.  I got numerous lectures on how I would never
amount to anything in life if I wasn't good at math.  I got locked in my
room with pages and pages of problems to solve, which ended up with me
in tears because I had no idea how to do them.  Not only did I have
crappy teachers in school, but my dad was even worse.

Most of the math problems involve algebra or calculus and you need a
calculator for much more complex functions than mere long division.

I think that merely passing math doesn't mean you know it.  I think most
people would realize that, in today's school system, unless you got an A
or a B, you don't really know a heck of a lot.

For me it's not so much about what I have to remember. It's more like,
"Oh, which one do I do? Which one is best? Why are they showing me yet
another way to do the same thing I already know how to do - now I have
to make yet another decision!" I guess I get flummoxed more by the
decision-making than by the memorizing.

As a teacher, it's good to have a number of different approaches to
various problems up your sleeve. But I would still only teach one at a
time. If the first one doesn't work well with the student(s), then try
another approach. No need to throw both of them at the class at the
same time.

Joyce