The response to my last post has been totally overwhelming. Whether you found it via Slate, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, skywriting, or messenger owl, I’m grateful that so many of you discovered something resonant in my little story.
Most of all, it’s been wonderful reading your stories. Far and away the most common response – and my favorite type to read – has been: “Ah yes, I remember the time that happened to me…” Your tales of academic struggle run from elementary school to research postdocs, from mathematics to English Lit. Most encouraging are the stories from professionals (even professors!) who now make a living on their quantitative skills, after facing the same doubts as the rest of us.
I promise to reply to comments here as swiftly and thoughtfully as I can (hopefully without letting my “to grade” pile grow until it becomes a permanent fixture in the Oakland skyline). And I’ll keep writing new things. Upcoming posts include “Death to the Quadratic Formula, a.k.a., Long Live the Quadratic Formula” and “Degrees vs. Radians: Ultimate Grudge Match,” as well as more thoughts on math anxiety and our culture’s strange relationship with mathematics.
My request for you is this: Please keep writing back! I’ve drawn so much wisdom, insight, and encouragement from your thoughts and experiences. Mine is the limited perspective of a 25-year-old. I’ve got much more to learn from the readers of this blog than they do from me. So please keep teaching me, and keep sharing!
Best wishes,
Ben
P.S. What really proved the resonance of this piece to me: strangers started following me on Twitter! I’d forgotten I had a Twitter account. I don’t even know how to Twitter. (How to “tweet”? I don’t know how to verb, either.) But if you’d like to track one teacher’s bumbling stumble-walk through this century of social media, follow me @benorlin.