Tutoring and such...

I think that you should push students (especially one to one) to their limits at all times but at the same time note when you went too far. I think that is the sign of a good tutor. Based on what you said (and from what I see here) you are a good tutor.
Thanks. I do try.

The real difficulty is deciding what a student's limits are. What I see in those I tutor is that they are frustrated by a curriculum that does not really challenge those who have material talents in math but leaves behind those who might benefit practically from basic math like algebra and descriptive statistics. We manage to undereducate those with talent and abandon those who could use decent training in the basics. (Admittedly, part of my fury is that I live in a school district that explicitly will not as a matter of principle provide advanced courses for capable students because "all our classes are appropriate for superior students." I tutor gratis as a matter of conscience.)

We need a revolution in education. I'd lead it if only I could find a good purveyor of guillotines.

With such an attitude, I suspect that I shall die in prison or on the scaffold. Indeed, the state may already be on my trail. Well, it is way too late now to rectify my ways. And as Lovelace says,

"Stone walls do not a prison make
Nor iron bars a cage.
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage."

As you can see, the metaphysical poets (and their predecessors Les Pleiades) are still my favorites.

Though the greatest line of poetry ever written may be from one of the Romantics:

"Si j'avais su ce que je sais:
Ce fut tout, mais ce fut assez."
 
If I had known what I know:
It was all, but it was enough.
The problem with romantic poetry is that once you take the music away, the sense left behind is often very small. Take away all of Daudet's sibilants with a translation, and not much is left except the sense of regret for what might have been.
 
Based on what you said (and from what I see here) you are a good tutor.
That is too small of a sample to claim that. JeffM regularly uses summation
notation to try to explain to beginning algebra students, and he often
does so in almost essay-length format.

He often does not address the proper lower-level math audience, nor does he get to the point
relatively quickly. He violates the "keep it simple, short" approach that would
help students, or even hold the attention of peers reading it. He is not being a
"good tutor" then.
 
The problem with romantic poetry is that once you take the music away, the sense left behind is often very small. Take away all of Daudet's sibilants with a translation, and not much is left except the sense of regret for what might have been.
But that - the music, the rhythm, the words - is an integral part of poetry! It is like saying - take away the color from Monet's painting and all you are left with white blotches on a cloth.....
 
This was made up by an elderly lady from Boston:

There once was a pretty young lass
Standing in water up to her knees
This poem does not rhyme yet
Just wait till the tide comes in!
 
But that - the music, the rhythm, the words - is an integral part of poetry! It is like saying - take away the color from Monet's painting and all you are left with white blotches on a cloth.....
...but with some happy trees.

-Dan
 
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