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Show WWW.NETXNEWS.NET MONDAY • JUNE 26 • 2006 Solving the problem Giving UVSC math a second chance Stereotyping Nerds, jocks, queers and dumb blonds Jared Magill Opinions Writer Have you ever wondered why so many students seem to have such a negative attitude towards math these days? Here at UVSC the negative attitudes seem to significantly outweigh the positive ones. However, that may just be because the voice of the malcontents is always louder than the voice of the satisfied students. Those students who seize every opportunity to profess their undying revulsion for mathematics often refer to it as "a necessary evil" and seek out ways to avoid any situation where math might be involved. One method UVSC students are using to avoid math that seems to be gaining in popularity is this EasiestMathEver.com organization. Now, we could use waste our time and energy firing shots at those guys, but they are too easy a target and really just a symptom of a much more deeply rooted problem; after all, they are probably just filling a need. It is this need that needs to be eliminated and the rest would take care of itself, so let's consider the ideas Hot Topic and Bath and Body works than in Gart Sports where he stood for ten minutes by several employees, none offering This is not a scientific help. Like the nerd, most experiment, but rather spoke to the blonde as if a demonstration for the she was a child but many ' . purpose of testing reac- were more hostile. Sees , tions and analyzing be- Candy, Victoria's Secret j : havior in Utah Valley to- and Bath and Body Works also assisted the profeswards students. We all belong to one, sionally dressed student with tagged descriptions whereas Gart Sports and and preconceived no- Hot Topic gave no assis- . \ ;, tions to go with it. Stereo- tance whatsoever. types are strongest among The Latina from Uru- ;.; , young adults and although guay, fluent in English the shell may not reflect but still with an accent, the inside appropriately, was treated like she was groups are still treated in stupid and could not unrespect to their outer ap- derstand the language. pearance. They talked slower and A group of students one male employee was played the roles of several disrespectful and would ... i , stereotypes and shopped not help her at all. at the University Mall Finally, although not in Orem to test the reac- gay in reality, the homotions of employees and sexual stereotype had an other customers. Among eye-opening experience. the "normal" stereotypes Mistreated and ignored or were a nerd, jock, dumb avoided, he was laughed • : blonde, prep, a Latina and at before they realized he :. a homosexual. was serious. When asking Surprisingly, many for a specific book at Despoke to the nerd as if seret Book, the employee he were slow and looked replied by saying they had Zarieck Smithey confused when he walked nothing that would inter- ;. _•. est him or his "kind." : by or spoke. Some gaped Opinions Writer and the overall feeling Each student involved ; was a mix of pity and is very much alike but be- ['•:': embarrassment for him. cause of the way each of ' ' Most were polite but ei- them dressed, adults and .L ''•; ther smiled or laughed out employees reacted differ- ^ i I love Guantanamo Bay. loud after he passed. Nu- ently to them. It demon- &"' Sure, I am not planning my merous groups blatantly strated how our culture r" next vacation there, but I'm pointed and laughed. in Utah is becoming one • glad the U.S. has such a The "normal" fe- that mocks intelligence \ place. I know there has been a male received more and looks down on more : lot of debate about it recently, extreme lifestyles. There : help than the male and but that's because its true purquicker though they both needs to be a balance in >•;*' > pose has been overlooked. It received adequate as- tolerance and intolerance ; • all comes down" to one word: sistance. Ironically, the and the scales seem to be ' Safety. male jock got better ser- tipping towards intolerGiven the circumstances , vice in Victoria's Secret, ance. Food for thought, v • regarding the recent death of the Al Qaeda leader, Al Zarqawi, I've caught myself asking the question, "What if he had lived?" If he had lived, he would have been a fountain of intelligence to U.S. forces, and after that, I would bet he might've ended up spend* E-Mail letters to uvscopinions@hotmail.com ing a significant amount of * The NetXNews room is located on campus in time at Guantanamo Prison. I SC220. feel much safer now that he * All letters become property of NetXNews and may is dead, but had the situation be edited for content, specifically clarity, length or turned out different, Guantaother concerns at the discretion of the Opinions Edinamo is my second choice. tor. Keeping the terrorists * Letters between 50-250 words are encouraged and at that location is the best those letters marked by their succinctness are more choice for the security of the United States. A few months likely to be published. ago I saw a news report stat* Letters must be accompanied by full name, address, ing how several terrorists, and phone number for verification purposes (contact who were captured by Coaliinformation will not be published). tion Forces, escaped a prison in Yemen with the help of a local mosque. 1 think that for- Zarieck Smithey Opinions Writer that lead students down this path. What you may have noticed about students who harbor negative attitudes towards math classes and the UVSC math department in general is that, for some reason they all appear to be clinging to one or more of a collection of false premises regarding mathematics. This has to stop if we want to go forth and make a positive contribution to society after college. So, why don't we spend some time and try to debunk these myths for the benefit of future students. False Premise # l - ' T m the creative type and that means that I'm not good at math." In the style of the "Party" from Orwell's 1984, those who believe this myth have obscured the definition of creative to imply that creativity and mathematics are two mutually exclusive disciplines. Actual creative types probably find this suggestion particularly offensive. If you believe this bit of nonsense then how do you explain all of the master artists from the Renaissance? Weren't DaVinci, Michelangello and Brunelleschi all creative types? The answer to that question is "yes they were," and guess what else, those guys knew their math and they used it in their art. In fact, if you study art history you will see the obvious truth that knowing math actually made them better artists. Some other examples of creative types using math would be an engineer who designs cars, or even just a part of a car, or an architect who designs a beautiful building, the list is endless. If you ponder these examples you will see that creativity and math are not the polar opposites that some would like you to think they are. They are actually quite complimentary. False Premise #2-'Tm going to be a (writer, entrepreneur,etc.) I'll never use math; therefore, I shouldn't have to learn it to get a college degree." It may be true that in most professions you will probably never need to find the 2nd derivative of some heinous 10th degree polynomial. However, whatever your choice of professions is, there is a strong chance that you will need the higher order thinking skills that are best developed by learning math, the more the better. Also, isn't the point of higher education not so much the memorization of plain facts as it is the process of developing your mind to be able to think at the highest level possible? If so, do those who are not willing to engage u\ that process deserve to get college degrees? Maybe they shouldn't be in college in the first place. False Premise #3-"I should be allowed to use a calculator on math tests." The only way someone believes this idea is if they already prescribe to one of the previous two assertions, or one not stated here. It may be that they were allowed to use calculators in high school math classes and have come to expect the same lenience in college. Those who find themselves in this situation should do the rest of us a favor and stop troubling us with their complaints. If they feel that they must blame someone other than themselves, they should go back and blame their high school math teachers for their lack of preparedness. They should also stop lobbying for the UVSC math department to dull down its curriculum to accommodate their inadequacy; that would hurt all of us. Geneva Conventions, Guantanamo Bay: is America safer LETTERS TO THE EDITOR &2bl/ "1'' eign governments cannot be trusted with the responsibility of securing those persons who would bring harm to Americans. There are people who feel that Guantanamo Bay should be shut down, citing that the United States is violating the rights of the individuals being held there, and that its just a facility used for torturing terrorists. I believe in universal human rights, and I also believe that when people commit crimes, they lose a substantial portion of those rights. However, I disagree with the Bush Administration's declaration that terrorists do not fall under the Geneva Conventions stipulations outlining lawful and unlawful treatment of Prisoners of War. The phrase "War On Terror" makes no sense. If a person blows up a plane full of innocent people, I would consider it an act of terror. On the other hand, if that same person blows up a U.S. Marine Tank, I consider that an act of war. If he is captured after that, he is a prisoner of war and therefore falls under the Geneva Conventions. Given the reality of the large amount of violence that occurs in Iraq everyday, it is clear that America has a lot of enemies. I would sleep better at night knowing that the terrorists we capture are not digging tunnels to a local mosque to escape, but are safe and secure at Guantanamo. Currently, the U.S. Supreme Court is debating what to do with Guantanamo Bay and its prisoners. I certainly hope they decide to keep it open. It serves a useful purpose by keeping America safe. |
