Re: Regarding EVALUATE TRUE



<klshafer@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1187813866.785920.240410@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Pete Dashwood wrote:

Just a note in passing...

As I never attended an American College, I find the use of the
formal "Mr" to be unfriendly and cold... <minor snips>
If people wish to communicate with me here, please, use my name.
Adopting
the formal, indicates displeasure or hostility as far as I am
concerned.

Frank Swarbrick wrote:
Just want to say that I agree with this. It is quite possible that
people
here are using "Mr so-and-so" here in a respectful manner, but my first
impression is that the intention is to be insulting. With Doc I honestly
have no idea. He's very hard to read. :-) With Ken I believe his
intention is quite respectful. But I still don't care for it. As you
say,
it seems 'cold'.


A brief story: One of my peers a while ago referred to me as
Grandpa :-) in an e-mail, and I took him to task for "taking
familiarities that were neither appropriate nor welcome."

I do believe that time once was the same view was held regarding use
of first names. Yes, I have friends, and I have business associates,
and sometimes they are the same, but sometimes not. The use of "Mr."
helps makes that distinction, albeit in a respectful way. To do
otherwise is to, ahem, "take liberties."

Yes, "taking liberties" is to be avoided. However, my experience is that
people take liberties no matter what form of address you use...:-)

I am not opposed to the old world views; all I can say is how it makes ME
feel. I don't like it.

In todays world there is a real risk of coming across as pompous when
formality is insisted upon.

(Nevertheless, there are times when formality is good...)

The test is in what makes people comfortable.

I believe true respect is in our interactions and not in the social
machinery we use.

In another dialogue, in another forum, I challenged the use of an
exhortation that we "embrace our customers." I put forth the notion
that while I embrace many people, my wife, my family, and my friends,
I have never embraced my hardware salesman, or my accountant, or my
lawyer, or any number of people I do business with.

Ah, Ken, you simply haven't lived... :-) I always give my Tax Inspector a
big hug before I go... :-)

I get a refund every year...not required for interviews any more...:-)

Perhaps I was
blunt, to the point of being heavy-handed, when I continued: to do so
is a bit of a flirtation, and I am neither a panderer nor a harlot.

Shucks, me, I'm both... :-)

Though I appreciate my clients, I treat them with a certain, uh, arm's
length distance. My arm reaches far enough to shake their hand. That
will do.


It's a nice statement. I can understand what you're saying, and enforced
affability and "Hail fellow...well met" is quite sickening. I like to get to
know my clients to the point where it isn't forced: I am genuinely
interested in how they're doing and am glad to see them.

A certain _Miss Manners_, aka Judith Martin, would be the arbiter of
protocol in this matters. Unfortunately, I do not have her _Miss
Manners Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior_ with me right now.
But I know where a copy is, and eventually I will be able to give you
the final word, according to Miss Manners, on this issue.

Of one thing I am certain Miss Manners would agree with. Once
requested by an individual to be addressed in a certain way, it is
impolite not to do so.

Isn't that so, Pete and Frank? :-)

Works for me :-)


And OK, you two and I have a wee bit more than a nodding acquaintance,
so you may address me as "Ken". As for other CLC'ers, that familiarity
is to come only with the passing of some time, and the "paying of
dues", a concept which is hopefully not entirely outmoded.

As for addressing "the Doc", well you're all on your own, but somehow,
I feel safe with him. :-)

Aaarrrrrggggghhh!! He's fooled another one!!! :-)

Not sure what this mode of address has to do with going to an American
College, though.


I am teaching Intermediate Algebra tonight at a community college. I
will address my students as Mr. and Ms. I expect to be addressed as
Mr. in return. I will make my effort to be kind and compassionate, as
well as respectful. Math is so intimidating for many of them.

I get the feeling you are a very good teacher, Ken. The qualities you
describe are conducive to good learning. Your students are lucky.


Set operations, Union and Intersection, and Set Complementation, are
on the agenda, eventually. Shall I tell my students of De Morgan's
Laws? :-) You know, they apply to set operations as well as logical
booleans.


The set operations of union and intersection correspond precisely with OR
and AND. In fact, the Boolean Algebra can be derived very easily from set
theory: The sets become an "Algebra" when certain axioms and operations are
fulfilled. Commutation, Distribution, Association, multiplicative identity
(1), addititive identity (0)... Hey! Presto! Look Ma, I just invented an
Algebra!!! :-) Although we usually talk of intersection or AND as
"corresponding" to multiplication in normal Algebra, and union or OR as
"corresponding" to addition, this is really just to give students some
comfort with the idea of "operations" within an Algebra. The truth is that
all of the aforementioned are simply defined "operations" within a set
space.

(I better stop now before anybody realises I failed maths at school, hated
it, was physically tortured by a female maths teacher who hated me (she made
me sit apart from the class in a window, in the sun, until I nearly passed
out , I was not allowed to move, and, in those days, you did as you were
told...I was 11 at the time... hopefully, the sadistic bitch is dead
now...:-)), and everything I know about Maths I taught myself after leaving
school.

Motivation is a fantastic thing; I avoided Maths (did History and Social
sciences instead) and managed to get through College without needing it.
Then I found myself working in a place with scientists and chemists who
needed computer programs and couldn't write them.
(How times have changed :-)... hard to imagine any scientist being
non-computer-literate, today...)

I learned enough Maths to understand what they were talking about and
programmed what they needed. In 6 months working on my own at night (but
with some help from the scientists I mentioned, who were very supportive of
my efforts) I covered the 5 year High School syllabus and taught myself
Calculus, Probability Theory, and even the rudiments of things like
topology, vector spaces, and non-Euclidean geometry. I loved it :-) If
anyone reading this is struggling with Maths, hang in there :-) When the
need arises, you will rise to it, but it is far, far, better to avail
yourself of the opportunity you have now, with tutors, other students and a
support system.)

Pete.
--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."


.

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