Ugh
Photo by Carlos Musa on Unsplash
My next class in the Positive Psychology specialization is on statistics and research. I just finished reading the paper written by the teachers, “True Grit: Trait-Level Perspectives and Passion for Long-Term Goals Predicts Effectiveness and Retention Among Novice Teachers” by Claire Robertson-Kraft and Angela Lee Duckworth. It was packed with charts and numbers and statistics and variables and I don’t know what-all, all to say that teachers with grit last longer and are more effective. To which I say, Duh!
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love me some research generally, but when reading statistics my eyes cross. I really want this specialization certificate, though so I guess I’ll muddle through, somehow.
Other things… not much to report, really. It’s been very warm, in the 90s here in Madison. I loved our trip to Arches. I really need to exercise daily if I want to gain some stamina by the end of August. Can I do it? Yes, I can! I also need to work hard on my knitting, I have two projects going that I’d like to have done before our trip. Must knit! I’ll watch shows while I knit.
I’m going to let you in on a guilty pleasure…
Watching “90 Day Fiancee” on Discovery+. It’s about couples who get an A1 “fiancee visa” and they have 90 days in which to marry, or the foreign half of the couple gets sent back home. It’s really rather silly, but I get caught up in the stories. I can be easily amused. I might watch some this afternoon. I also enjoy cooking shows, especially British ones.
ok, well now all of you know my guilty pleasure.
It’s NOT statistics.
Gosh, I hope they don’t expect us to do math.
I have a theory about me and math. I think I have some sort of learning disability that just can’t take in and make sense of numbers. It’s a foreign language that I never learned. My brain just freezes and shuts off. If I can understand that the numbers STAND for something, I can kind of wrap my mind around it, because I believe much of life is metaphor, language is metaphor. If I can “metaphorize” numbers, maybe I can approach it that way.
Did I ever talk about how I got away with math in college? When I was first going to Cardinal Stritch I was an early childhood education major (yeah, me with a bunch of kids? Unthinkable), anyhow I took a class called “Math for the young child” and it counted as my math requirement for my BA! Ha! I then changed my major to English, but my early childhood math still fulfilled my requirement. Ha! Playing with beads and rulers and shapes and such. Actually, it was a pretty good class. I learned a lot. But seeing as how I really limped through Algebra (Thank You, Audrey Gloor) and almost didn’t graduate high school because of it. I mean, it was close, people!
I guess in the end I can say, I love not doing math, and I gaze with wonder at people who speak math fluently. I know it can be a beautiful thing, but my brain just doesn’t process it.
Not Hygge, people!!
