Re: To Cammie Totally off topic!!

[Guest guest]

You sound like such a good teacher! And not only of math and systems

and such.

I was an only child, so I had neither sister nor brother, and

haven't nieces nor nephews, either. So i reckon I have to try to

teach the hapless adults who have fallen recklessly into my sphere

of influence whatever little bits I have learned.

Oh, Gawd. You ARE making fun, aren't you? Or you really don't know

about a slide rule? Who knows whether it's become the pick axe of

the mathematicians today, who live in a world of graphing

calculators and the like.

The slide rule is essentially a tool that is, I suppose, to the

calculator as an abacus is to the computer. Maybe it's so obsolete

that today's mathematicians and engineers have never heard of it. If

you like, send me your address and I will send you one of the two I

bought in my academic career, although they are not treasures. They

were standard, required equipment in the 1960s and 1970s for kids

studying at MIT (not that I did) and other Elevated Institutions,

even liberal arts schools for females. Or for non-scientific idjuts

like me who found themselves in technical courses to fullfil science

requirements.

Matter of fact, it was sort of a marker that a girl was a geek if

she wore one in her belt... But she was expected to use one as

expertly as a guy was, at exams, for less eventual money and career

achievements. because she was a woman, and would quit the field to

go and bear the babies.

The slide rule lets you multiply and divide, (and probably find

sines and cosines, although I don't speak that language) using

logorhythms -- that can't be spelled right! -- (or at least that's

what I remember about it, having learned it twice). Haven't used one

since. And still cannot use a calculator.

I like the old fashioned adding machine, with a paper trail, which

I know how to check. Although increasingly I am doing sums (but not

multiplication) just by adding in my head and on my fingers -- the

last strictly forbidden when I was in school. (We didn't learn about

base 8, either, although I have a vague comprehension of that.) I do

have to do even basic counting three times, in efforts to make it

accurate. Sigh.

>

> Dear Cammie,

>

> Your childhood sounds llike my classroom! The philosophies of

> teaching these days seem to center around real world experience

and

> less about memorization (although it is necessary from time to

> time!) I just got off the phone with my 8 year old nephew who was

> proudly telling me what his class was learning in Math. Every

since

> he could count I would tell hima rule that was always true and

then

> he would answer a thousand math questions like doubling numbers

mean

> x 2. Then I would tell him double your doubles and that is a

number

> times 4. He has always asked me hard questions because it has

always

> been fun for him. I used to give him baths when he was 3 4 and 5

and

> we played the opposite game while I washed his hair. He ated

having

> a bath or his hair washed so I would wash his hair and while I did

> this I had to think of words and he had to think of a word that

was

> an opposite. He was 6 I guess when he knew what antonyms and

> synonyms were. I would say my third graders do this and he'd be

so

> proud that he could do it too! Teaching has always been a fun

> pasttime for me since I was 8 myself and taught all my dolls. I

> guess that is why it is the perfect job for me. I still feel like

I

> am playing at home in my room with my lesson plans and grade

book.

> Aghhh...reminicing of childhood, sorry!! Now tell me of this

slide

> rule (what is it ?)

>

> Jane

>