September 2006 Archives

Armed with a computer now, I think that I have fixed the primary problem with the comment system. Email me or try to post if there are any problems with commenting or viewing entries. There are still a few aesthetic deficiencies to be resolved, but at least the site is functioning--I think.

Accordingly, more posts on my exploits here in Chicago will soon follow. For now, I am exhausted from reading John Dewey and fixing this stupid site, and I must sleep. People accuse me of being needlessly verbose and garbled, but Dewey really takes those words to a new level. Thankfully he's brilliant too, but it's a real pain to realize it.

Speaking of Dewey, I just learned that the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (the university's primary and secondary preparatory school) was founded by Mr. Dewey. In accordance with his educational philosophy, they essentially teach absolutely nothing until about 5th grade, just letting the students do whatever projects they want, throw blocks at each other, etc. Yet, by the beginning of the secondary years, the students are 1-2 years ahead of comparable students in other schools. It's fascinating that not teaching can actually be as good of a way instruction as being rigorous at an early level. Indeed, Dewey's system is the antithesis of the current trends in public education. Politicians, taxpayers, and parents demand this ridiculous level of "accountability" (like standardized testing starting at in the range of grades 1-3), thinking that forcing more stuff more quickly down students throats will somehow make them more successful in life. Despite the advent of highly structured curricula in the first years of elementary school, and its proponents' claim that it improves student learning, I would counter that it is all a big load of crap. Firstly, the statistical evidence that highly structured curricula in grades K-3 seriously improve education has not been tested well over large periods of time. Furthermore, it is likely that with such curricula teachers are less likely to do a poor job of teaching, since they have less freedom in teaching. Freedom is freedom to do good as well as to screw up. Lastly, we measure educational "effectiveness" by how well students do standardized tests. Less structured, more Dewey-esque curricula tend to give students fewer skills specifically needed for the tests. Thus our entire conception of what is "good" or "bad" education is predicated on the assumption that all important facets of education are measurable by 75-100 multiple-choice questions. I hope that you're laughing. It's tragic that politics always have to obscure the maximization of social welfare in so many ways.

Despite my best hopes and efforts, it really isn't very possible to pass the honors physics mechanics accreditation examination without ever having had a formal course in mechanics. It was a miserable experience, and although the results have not come back, only finishing half of the ten problems spells my defeat. There's something about screwing up an examination--especially a very long one--that is thoroughly exhausting.

I'm sorry to say that my comments aren't fully in order, and until I get my MacBook (I'm buying one on September 25th after Photokina, regardless of whether Apple updates the model to Merom or not), they will remain as such. Furthermore, I will only be providing small snippets of my experience via blog and email until I have unlimited computer resources.

I just had an... experience today. We took a grueling 3 hour mathematics placement examination on Sunday, and received our results today. I placed out of calculus and honors calculus and was one of about 20-30 who placed into the introduction to analysis and linear algebra (math 19900), a course designed to whip people into shape for analysis and honors analysis. There were about 20 or so people who placed into analysis in Rn (20300 series) and/or the honors version (20700 series), so I have clearly felt very humbled by the level of brilliance that surrounds me (even my own house is chock full of at least 5 or so first-years who are extremely talented at mathematics). So, I went to the meeting for first-years intending to take these classes. Right at 2 PM when it was scheduled to start, in walks a certain Paul Sally, the coordinator of undergraduate mathematics. The man must be 70 years old, and as he puts it: "I have no legs, I have no ears, and I have no eye, but I have a heart of gold." He wears an eye patch over one eye, and has another professor who repeats things to him when he can't hear. After ranting about how these classes would "kick you in the ass," (accordin to wikipedia, the name for his upcoming textbook is: "Kick-Ass Mathematics") he proceded to tell his assistant, a certain second-year, to write problems for us on the board. It was the most amazing thing. He made up some random problems mostly off the top of his head for us. As far as I know, one or two of the problems are as of yet unsolved. He proceded into a description of a few courses, but mostly focused on the honors analysis class, which requires about 30-40 hours of outside work each week to scrape by. As far as he knows, it is the most difficult undergraduate mathematics class in the United States, taught at what most would consider the graduate level. This is all ridiculously intense, in a word. Apparently 2-3 unsolved problems are given as homework each week. The man is amazing, and while I felt unspeakably intimidated at the beginning (and I still am), I think that this will be a very fun ride.

I am at the University of Chicago, living in my neo-Gothic edifice, surrounded by tea-rooms, lounges, and gigantic fireplaces in unusual places. The number of words I could use to describe the past few days would be at least as overwhelming (positively) as the past few days have been to me. I shall refrain. I have no computer, except the few that I can manage to find in the library's interim hours or in the dormitory's pitifully tiny, but underused, lab. Hence, I am a bit limited in my access. I hope to God that Apple releases the Merom powered MacBook soon, otherwise I am going to go absolutely insane. So, if I'm strangely absent from all forms of electronic communication for a week, two weeks, a month... You know why, and rest assured that at that point, when my MacBook arrives in my mailbox, megabytes of text will eject from my fingertips.

Until then...

After a quick fix extricated me from JavaScript hell (I know nothing about JavaScript), the comments are working! In just a few minutes, I will make them beautiful again.

I have just completed the upgrade to Movable Type 3.32. While I made two stupid mistakes that cost me somewhere between one and two hours of frustration and wrangling, the upgrade process is now admitted smoother than ever. The makers of Movable Type have really improved its capabilities tremendously since version 3.1. Now, for the comments...

"Adam, Chicago is a very violent city. Just keep that in mind."

--Ben Medler

I registered with Selective Service today. A few days after the my 18th birthday I received a mailing with a registration card and a statement that I was required by law to register. What I found remarkably interesting about the mailing I received was that it contained absolutely no information about what registering for the SSS actually means. Now obviously, I know the details of registration: all males over 18 are required to do it, and it's how the government is able to draft people. Maybe I'm just being excessively critical, but when an entity is forcing a person to do something, they should provide at least some explanation or rationale with their statement of demand. I find this to be an especially potent point when considering the gravity of registering for the SSS. That one consents to let the government conscript them at any time for most any purpose is not to be taken lightly, even if it is by force. This is not to say that I oppose the SSS; I completely understand its necessity, so that our country is not overrun by malignant invaders, or a shortage of health workers, etc. But it would be nice to see the government have a little bit more respect by actually telling its citizens what it's forcing them to do.

My work on the blog and particularly on the comment feature is coming along, if slowly, these days. With a fresh install of Movable Type, the system should be back up. At the earliest, expect everything to be up and running by the end of this week. It will certainly be functional by the time I leave for Chicago on September 13.

"I often pestered him with religion, but here the fog was thickest of all. To the question, What am I to do in this sense? he replied in the stupidest way, as to a little boy: 'You must believe in God, my dear.'

"'Well, and what if I don't believe in all that?' I at once cried in irritation.

"'Splendid, my dear.'

"'How, splendid?'

"'A most excellent sign, my friend; even the most trustworthy, because our Russian atheist, if only he's a true atheist and has a bit of intelligence, is the best man in the whole world and always inclined to treat God nicely, because he's unfailingly kind, and he's kind because he's immeasurably pleased that he's an atheist. Our atheists are respectable people and trustworthy in the highest degree, the support, so to speak, of the fatherland...'"

--An exchange between Arkady Makarovich Dolgoruky and Makar Ivanovich Dolgoruky in Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Adolescent