Shoutouts: keifermiller, lil, ThatFanficGuy (possibly nowaypablo? I figure that you might get a chuckle out of it. Same goes for am_Unition)
Past few days were mostly about this thing:
I got an answer, although not from the principal. Like all professional adults, she fucked off. But one of the teachers told me why she thinks I'm no longer welcome. Apparently, students who attended my short lesson about invariants were discussing one of the humorous things that I just threw as a bit of an intuition. See, the invariant is pretty much exactly the thing you think it is: if there's a set of object that follows a certain set of rules, there might exist a property derived from the rules that will not change no matter how many times you will apply them. For example, in cellular automata (like the Conway's game of life) there will always be some sort of a structure that just persists. Glider (same as in Forever Labs logo) will glide forever etc. Here's roughly the analogy I used:
- You could actually use invariants to disprove Karma. Let's use a simple example and say that there are n people and only one of them has bad karma. Someone with good karma will be forced to exchange it by doing a deed that will effectively swap bad person's karma with the other's good karma. Therefore if there's even one person with bad karma, there will never be a state with only good karma.
(I know that it's not precisely how it works, I just wanted to make an analogy that would speak to them.)
Apparently I must have had some sort of an agenda against Buddhists or Hinduists or whoever else uses Karma. I mean, there are bad reasons, stupid reasons and there's this. I wonder if I would talk about Ham sandwich theorem (yeah, that's not only a real thing but an important mathematical result! Pancake theorem is a name for it in two dimensions) it would be deemed as insensitive toward people struggling with weightloss.
Fact that I wasn't confronted about it is just pure shit on part of the principal. I guess that I'm not mature enough to handle such sensitive topics, right?
Anyway, I have requisitioned one of the lecture halls for every other Thursday. My high school outreach is about to become official as I have put forward some paperwork. With two post-graduate students also wanting to get in on that and one professor willing to vouch for us, even the people in administration will have a problem with refusing it. What about the interest of actual students? Well, I went ahead and talked to principals in two other schools in the area. After meeting with them and some teachers, they were really into it and agreed to ask students in their extended (AP) courses. So far I have a rough estimate of thirty-eight people from my high school wanting to attend and twenty-six from the other two schools. Aside from proving me once more that I went to the Forge of Nerds, it also means that this thing is going to run for quite a few people.
Official start: most likely this October. Regardless, I am going to do this thing throughout the summer if there will be anyone interested. Shit is going to get real. :D
Moral of the story: even if the school is famous for being the place for 'whiz-kids' to be forged into future mathematicians and physicists it says nothing about the principal not being a complete and utter dumbass. I would say that it should be a lesson for me, to stop using weird analogies, but all of it could have been averted if only the mentioned principal would give me enough benefit of the doubt to actually let me explain it and talk it out like adults. But that's not really a lesson for me: I know that most of the "adult and professional because of age" people are full of shit and more childish than I ever was.
You are absolutely right about that. We should all give people the benefit of the doubt and try to understand a situation before taking action against them. Principals are terrified of parents. Keep in mind that you still have not talked directly to the principal and don't really know what happened. You still have the option of behaving with integrity and trying to clarify any misunderstanding. This means 1. Letting the principal know how you felt after talking to her. 2. Telling her what you heard and asking for clarification because 3. Showing understanding for her concerns (if the teacher was right). Showing understanding that she is responsible for student well-being. 4. Showing your commitment to teaching, math, kids etc. by telling her that you needed clarification and you are seeking mentoring with regard to anything you do. 5. Hoping you hadn't caused any harm, and apologizing for whatever problem you might have caused. Just because the principal is not taking you seriously, you can be serious with this false or unnecessary accusation and apologize and more importantly, point the way -- Model appropriate behaviour by facing the problem calmly and asking for clarification and mentoring. It's in your best interest to get this false or misguided or bullshit accusation cleared up with the principal and by all your actions, you've demonstrated that you are a serious teacher. Rather than writing them off as being full of shit, give them a chance to work it out with you.Well, I went ahead and talked to principals in two other schools in the area. After meeting with them and some teachers, they were really into it and agreed to ask students in their extended (AP) courses.
This is fantastic and impressive. I hope you told those two principals what you think happened at your old school. You don't want that to come back and bite you. You will probably disagree with my following comments. I'm interested in knowing what you think:Like all professional adults, she fucked off.
Not all. Some, maybe even many, deal with things with integrity.But all of it could have been averted if only the mentioned principal would give me enough benefit of the doubt to actually let me explain it and talk it out like adults.
But one of the teachers told me why she thinks I'm no longer welcome.
is still just a theory.But that's not really a lesson for me: I know that most of the "adult and professional because of age" people are full of shit and more childish than I ever was.
Thanx I thought you might disagree because it would be awkward to go to someone in a superior position who treated you badly and say, "I've been thinking about what you said, and ..." I also thought that since whatever you said was soooo much a non-issue, apologizing would seem ridiculous. Anyway, I'm glad it all ended well.
I learned this lesson the hard way too. I got crucified (ha!) once when I made a weird analogy about a religious topic on an atheist website. I learned that a lot of religious and anti-religious people take their analogies very literally . . . and seriously. I try to keep my weird analogies to non-religious topics, if possible.I would say that it should be a lesson for me, to stop using weird analogies
You're making my head hurt. Also, perhaps part of the problem is that's not how Karma works. Here are the actual rules for Karma exchange: 1. A person with good karma will increase their good karma by helping a person with good karma. 2. A person with good karma will increase their good karma by helping a person with bad karma. 3. A person with bad karma will increase their good karma by helping a person with good karma. 4. A person with bad karma will increase their good karma by helping a person with bad karma. The steady-state of Karma is enlightenment - we all break free of the wheel and vanish into the universe in a cloud of patchouli-scented bliss. It may not be a good example for invariance. That might be what got you in trouble - you flippantly picked a religious concept you don't understand perfectly and then used it incorrectly to make your point. Which - even accepting your terms, even accepting your math - I still don't understand and I have an engineering degree: WHAT is indeed an invariant of the operation? What are we defining here? An integer plus its negative integer will equal zero - so is that an invariant operation? But that's "invariant" as adjective, not "an invariant" as noun. I get the condition of invariance - the Conway glider is a great example. But in the Conway glider example, what is the invariant? This is why I gave a counter-example of catalysts - you need them for the reaction, but their mass returns to solution in the course of the process.While trivial, it is indeed an invariant of the operation as it will work for any object.
The invariant is a property. If you're a mathematician, a property is a thing you can define an indicator function for.WHAT is indeed an invariant of the operation? What are we defining here? An integer plus its negative integer will equal zero - so is that an invariant operation? But that's "invariant" as adjective, not "an invariant" as noun.
So "properties" are like "metadata" of the equation. They're not in it but they're a 2nd order quality that can be analyzed or used in other equations. They're not like catalysts, because the catalyst is actually in the equation - they're more like molarity.
So invariants are generalized from geometry. Angles being invariant under isometries is probably the ur-example. If you have a triangle, the measure of the angle A is a property of the triangle. If you translate the triangle, the image of A has the same measure as A. Another definition of a property is a one-argument predicate; it's something you can say about an object. If you know an invariant holds before an operation, you know it holds after; that's what's interesting about them. Something is only a catalyst in a particular reaction, so I would think it would only make sense to say "C is a catalysts" is a property of the reaction as a whole. My chemistry is beyond rusty though.