My favorite professors are the ones that can take an hour long lecture and make it feel like 5 minutes, leaving the students feeling sad that it's over while they look forward to the next one

[–] Sabre363 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

One of my favorite professors literally convinced me to like learning math and pursue a degree in physics in a single conversation by doing nothing more than being a huge fucking nerd about diffraction lenses when he saw me goofing off with one in lab instead of paying attention. The lenses had nothing to do with class and we never did any math, and yet instead of snapping "eyes front" at me like most teachers, he derailed teaching the actual course for no other reason than to talk about something we both just thought was cool as shit. He cared more about teaching me what I wanted to learn than anything else and, as an accidental result, 180 my entire academic career.

That and we both agree that canned peas are an abomination sent from the depths of hell entirely unfit for consumption by any living creature.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's great when a professor can be inspirational

I had to learn math out of desperation. Unbeknownst to me because I had terrible math teachers, I had a natural talent for math.

It wasn't until I joined the military after high school that the military discovered my math abilities on the ASVAB and put me in a job that required a lot of math.

Every class for my job had an intense amount of math that gained significant difficulty with each passing grade. It was either pass the class or get reclassed to a guaranteed terrible job not of your choosing.

Grinding out math became my only focus for 10-12 hours a day out of fear of severe penalty

Made me wish I had decent math teachers back in school, I felt like I was operating with a handicap

[–] Sabre363 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Math is really one of those core subjects that really needs to be taught better in schools, and anxiety inducing penalties are never the right way to go about it.

I think everyone should know math at least up to trigonometry, its surprisingly important just in everyday life and knowing math unlocks a lot of skills in life. Just think about how much math is used in the trades, cooking, running a business, doing drugs, going shopping, etc. As a tutor I used to see so many people that just couldn't even do basic order of operations or understand negative numbers. This was never a case of unintelligent, more a failing of their education. These people were, much like you, genuinely operating with a handicap of understanding and academic support.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

My problem was 3-part: the previously mentioned terrible teachers, peer pressure (Everyone hated math), and my own mental block to it after being poisoned against it by so many people