Tag Archives: education

Education Musings

Every year a bit before Christmas, a particular 8th grade science teacher from my old middle school holds a Christmas Party. Funny enough, she was not my science teacher (but she was my science olympiad coach), even though I learned much science from her. She has a reputation for being strict and rigorous (which she deserves), and in general she was one of those teachers that people know are simply good.

Posted in Math.ED, Mathematics | | 1 Comment

Ghostwritten Word

I’ve just learned of the concept of ghostwriting, and I’m stunned.

A friend and fellow grad student of mine cannot believe that I’ve made it this far without imagining it to be possible. I asked around, and I realized that I was one of the few who wasn’t familiar with ghostwriting.

Before I go on, I should specify exactly what I mean. By ‘ghostwriting,’ I don’t mean situations where the President or another statesman gives a speech that they didn’t write themselves, but that was instead written by a ghostwriter. That makes a lot of sense to me. I refer to the cases where a student goes to a person or service, gives them their assignment, and pays for it to be completed. And by assignment, I don’t just mean 20 optimization problems in one variable calculus. I mean things like 20 page term papers on the parallels between the Meichi Revolution and American Occupation in Japan, or 50 page theses, or (so it’s claimed by some) doctoral dissertations.

Posted in Story | | 1 Comment

Task: Calculate $\displaystyle \sum_{i = 1}^{69} \sqrt{ \left( 1 + \frac{1}{i^2} + \frac{1}{(i+1)^2} \right) }$ as quickly as you can with pencil and paper only.