From: Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I can memorize equations more easily than that, and can apply them properly. But I ran into a problem in high school, taking physics. The physics teacher we had wasn't qualified to teach physics (in fact, *nobody* in the science department was, pathetically enough), but boy did she know her chemistry. On tests, we were each allowed one 3"X5" file card, and I'd just put the equations on there -- I could tell which one it was by looking at it, but had a hard time memorizing. Then one day, she gave us a standardized test, told us she didn't expect anyone to do well on it, but that we should just do our best. No file card, but no constraints. Use the margins of the question sheet to figure things out. So I used the *calculus* I'd known for 2 years already and could utilize in my sleep, and totally, totally blew the curve.
My "Honors Physics" class in high school was even more pathetic. Whenever the teacher presented a new formula to the class, she'd always say something like "how the heck did they come up with this wacky formula"? That was the running joke for the whole year. As far as we knew, the origin of all those formulas was far beyond anything we were capable of. Despite the fact everyone in the class had Calculus, she never revealed to us even the slightest clue to the connection.
It wasn't until my college physics course 2 years later that I discovered the "mysterious" origin of all those formulas. Afterwards, I saw her while visiting the high school, and I said "Don't you know that all those formulas are derived using calculus?" and she said "Yeah, but I really didn't want to get into that". Grrr!
She was a sweet lady, but a terrible, terrible science teacher. She had also taught my "Honors Chemistry" course, which proved to be absolutely zero preparation for college chemistry. By contrast, a friend of mine in the college chemistry class (who went to a different high school), regularly skipped class and pretty much coasted by using his old high school chem notes.
But then, my high school Trig and Calc courses weren't really good prep for college level math courses, either. Damn, my high school education almost entirely sucked. Actually, on the humanities side, it was pretty decent, but that didn't do me much good, getting an engineering degree.
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