Another Day of Not Using Algebra? Not Today!

by | Jun 6, 2022 | Tutorial | 82 comments

One thing I cannot stand is slacker culture.  That is, doing the least amount of anything just to get by.  As an educator, seeing it is my least favorite part of the job.

We are often told that we don’t do enough to motivate or inspire our slacker students and I vehemently disagree with this.  I have always believed that motivation in any form comes from within and unfortunately, some folks see little reward for their efforts and therefore fail to perform.  Their failure to perform is usually not due to lack of intelligence, but more often due to laziness.

In my own experience as a Geography student, I experienced the slacker culture firsthand and rejected it.  As expected, grades in class were determined by homework, class assignments, and exams: two midterms and one final.  Making things a little sweeter for us, we could drop the score of our lowest of three exams if that raised our overall score.

This experience was back in the days when professors posted grades up on the wall for everyone to see.  Since I was getting an A, I didn’t really care who knew.

The day of the final exam came and I was greeted by slacker culture.  My classmates were surprised to see me.  I didn’t understand why.  Since I kept a very low profile and didn’t interact with anyone during the semester, I was surprised that my classmates knew who I was.

Here’s why.  My first midterm score was 98 out of 100.  My second midterm score was 97 out of 100.

I was determined to ace the final exam.

But that’s not how many of my classmates saw things.  Don’t take the final exam and drop that score was my introduction to the slacker culture of my classmates.

I didn’t ace the final.  I scored 96 out of 100 and dropped that score for an A in the class.  And that brings us to the actual topic of this blog post: slacker culture.

An unfortunate meme or trope these days goes something like this: another day of not using algebra.

I find this offensive for many reasons and one is that it relates to the slacker culture of doing the least amount to get by.  Many see little relevance to algebra and would prefer to not exercise their brain muscle to understand it.

I prefer to reframe this unfortunate meme/trope.  How about algebra: another day not working in the salt mines, coal mines, or doing hard physical labor out in the hot sun.

How about algebra: another opportunity to expand one’s mind in an air conditioned classroom.

Here’s another.  Algebra: the foundation upon which excellence is built.

I teach a college level Geography lab with a heavy dose of mathematics.  Many a lab begins with this introduction: you know that trope about today being another day where you don’t use algebra?  Today is not that day!

Instead of celebrating the least amount of achievement, let us embrace excellence.

82 Comments

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