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From: troly@redwood.math.ucla.edu (Bret Jolly)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Student preparedness
Message-ID: <331@sunset.MATH.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 14 Jan 89 04:21:22 GMT
References: <605@ucrmath.EDU> <6578@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> <19252@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <85191@sun.uucp>
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Reply-To: troly@math.ucla.edu (Bret Jolly)
Organization: UCLA Mathematics Department
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In article <85191@sun.uucp> landman@sun.UUCP (Howard A. Landman) writes:
>My first grade teacher taught that there was no such thing as a negative
>number.  It took me three years to figure out she was wrong, but when I
>did, I was furious for a month.

  My 3rd grade teacher said the same thing, but I didn't believe her.
I tried to explain them, but that only served to enrage her. She
pulled me up in front of the class and said, "All right smarty, show
the class numbers less than zero on your fingers. See, you can't, so
there aren't any! Nyaah!" I had just come to this country and the
encounter left me wondering if Americans were just intellectually
inferior.

-Bret