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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 17 2013 @ 12:50 PM EDT |
(Tkilgore again, who started this thread)
Finally someone who agrees with me. Thank you.
I have even, somewhere above in this thread, seen mathematics referred to as a
"hazing experience" for engineering students. So, thank you again for
knowing better and speaking up.
The facts are, many of the pre-engineering students seem to believe that their
mathematics courses *are* a hazing experience. There is a regular folklore about
that, which is seemingly passed on by some of the older students. Very
unfortunately, this is a delusion even though prevalent.
Again, your remarks very much agree with my own experience.
We have a strong engineering school, and there are several professors in those
departments who have published research in mathematics in mathematical journals,
such as the SIAM Journal of Numerical Analysis. Clearly, those who would go
forward in those corresponding disciplines in engineering ought to be able to
keep up with the professors and ultimately surpass them. This assuredly involves
mathematics which is far above and beyond the freshman calculus course, or, for
that matter, the introduction to ordinary differential equations.
I will further say that several of the engineering departments have a battery of
tests for admission to the major. To a great extent, those tests pertain to
mathematics. Far too many students fail those tests who "passed" the
math classes which cover the material on the tests. Unfortunately, too many of
our students can not see far enough ahead of themselves to realize that they
will have to face those tests, believing that their mathematics classes are a
"hazing experience" and all they have to do is survive through the
math courses by learning to make the right noises and motions at the right
times.
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