alexinomics:

rush-keating:

mossworm:

If you hate taking classes in any kind of science (biology, chemistry, math, physics, engineering, etc.) I am sorry that the system has failed you and it’s not your fault. Too often I meet people who hate one of those subjects really just because some teacher or curriculum made them unfun or inaccessible and it’s really not fair. Not being good at calculus or not wanting to be a programmer full-time shouldn’t stop you from appreciating the subjects. That’s what teachers are supposed to instill in you and it’s super lame that it doesn’t always go that way.

I know many people following me are probably science geeks to some degree but it hurts my heart to meet good people that hate biology or chemistry or whatever as subjects because no one has ever made it fun and cool and accessible for them or they didn’t get a chance to be introduced for whatever reason. 

I only had one good math teacher in grade school. I would not be a STEM major if it weren’t for him. Literally. And I went to a school with good academics.

I didn’t really have any good math teachers though this stuff kind of came naturally to me so so never really occurred to me that the way math was being taught may of been the reason why so many people around me absolutely loathed having to do anything with it.

Math doesn’t come naturally to me relative to other subjects and the way schools would teach it would make it worse. They would teach all the rules in a really abstract and roundabout way without explaining how or why they were used. The teacher I mentioned did not use the textbook. He would give us either handouts he made himself or he found on the Internet. He was a professional engineer before he became a teacher so he actually understood how real people use calculus. He reminded me a little of Dr. House because he was really grouchy and would kvetch about his job all the time but he was good at it and liked all of us. The one thing he did that I don’t like in retrospect is that he would kvetch about engineering a lot too since he used to be an engineer but hated it and I think part of the reason why I didn’t apply to an engineering program in college was due to that.