-Jan

beth

About this rejection thing, though … I wonder if people who feel rejected just have a hard time with external stimulation, period. I read something about that when my children were younger. Some people just have a tougher time dealing with “reality” - say, walking into a room that’s filled with objects - I recall that there’s a correlation between people with low self-esteem and the ability to recall the contents of a room. People with low self-esteem might only remember one or two items in the room, where others with better self-esteem might remember a dozen. It’s sort of a “disconnect” with the world.

Deborah

In school, I fell into the latter category. My brain doesn’t play well with numbers - still, when people begin to talk in numbers I automatically tune out (sorry, everyone). I found solace in the fact that most other people I knew hated math, too. It seemed pretty lame to all of us. Our indifference to learning was probably helped out by the phenomenon low self-esteem in high school, and college - no one knows whether or not they’ll be rejected by their peers on any given day for any unknown reason.

I’m still not good with numbers, but I no longer hate math. I respect people who find it interesting and are good at it. We need them - so that all of us who are no good at math can forget all about our sad, awkward experiences with algebra.

OK, OK, I exaggerate a bit, but this is much the way many of my students act — if not specifically state it — in my introductory Astronomy classes. Why they even bother to take a science course is beyond me, except I think that Astronomy has a mystique many other sciences lack (actually, Physics has it, too, but there aren’t as many “pretty pictures” to arouse interest).

The sad thing is that all these students have more than enough native intelligence to ace a simple introductory course, but whether through a genuinely low self esteem or through peer pressure (more below), they have physched themselves into the idea that they are “no good” at science or that they might be considered a “geek”, which apparently is the ultimate “uncool” thing. [Yeah, but aren't Bill Gate's billions and all those cool gadgets pretty cool? Huh?]

The funny thing (in a sad sense) is that some students almost seem proud of the fact that they don’t seem to know any math or even the rudiments of logical thinking. I think that they are afraid to seem smart in any academic sense. This is NOT any kind of classical deficit in self esteem. It is self-imposed and shallow pettiness. Maybe they know the latest about Paris Hilton or the latest song by (fill in the blank), but if it comes to knowing anything about how the world really works — well, it’s just not their thing. Too bad, because I know without doubt that unless a student has some kind of mental challenge (don’t you like how I am being PC here?), they can make an “A” in my class. But relatively few even try. I hope they all read this, because I want them to take it as a challenge.

Larry S.