Happy, confident students do worse in math, apparently, according to an article today by the Associated Press.
“Kids who are turned off by math often say they don’t enjoy it, they aren’t good at it and they see little point in it. Who knew that could be a formula for success?
The nations with the best scores have the least happy, least confident math students, says a study by the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy.
Countries reporting higher levels of enjoyment and confidence among math students don’t do as well in the subject, the study suggests. The results for the United States hover around the middle of the pack, both in terms of enjoyment and in test scores.
In essence, happiness is overrated, says study author Tom Loveless.”
Hi Gold fish,
As I was trying to prepare for the test today, I came across this again, Dr. Vannevar Bush says,
“A mathematician is not a man who can readily manipulate figures; often he cannot. He is not even a man who can readily perform the transformations of equations by the use of calculus. He is primarily an individual who is skilled in the use of symbolic logic on a high plane, and especially he is a man of intuitive judgment in the choice of the manipulative processes he employs.”
vrinda
Useful quote, Vrinda. Thanks! I suppose a person possessing a high level of “symbolic logic” and “inituative judgment” isn’t likely to be innocent, naive or filled with lightheartedness.
Smarter, yet unhappier.
That’s the balance of life, I guess.