On Why I Said That

The most seemingly frivilous and meaningless comments often have lots of thought and intentions behind them. With regards to the previous post, I will now exposite on why I had told the class that 'Bar Graphs are for stupid people'.

Firstly, I think the essential thing when trying to get a point across to someone else, or when teaching, is to get the complete attention of that person. The next logical aim is obviously to maintian that attention. Starting a topic by 'de-valuaing' it allows this to be done. I believe that upon knowing that a topic is easy, to the student who sees him/herself as below average, the first reaction is: "Ah, so this is not difficult. Maybe I can understand this, and then maybe I am not that stupid!"The initial reaction to the student who sees him/herself as average, might go along the lines of " Oh, I better understand this, if not it means I am stupid!" I am not interested in the reaction of the above average students, because no matter how, they will understand it.

It is deducible that the 'apparent managability of the task' will attract the attention of those who think lowly of their academic abilities, while the 'desire to prove themselves' will spur the average to concentrate on the lesson. However, it is clear that the consequences of such a statement as 'this topic is for the stupid' can be severe. This is when the student eventually does not manage to grasp the topic, or what is being taught, and goes away thinking he/she is truly more than stupid.

Therefore, I personally went round to every student to ensure that they were successful graduates of my lesson. And yes, I had undivided attention, and very spontaneous participation during the lesson, as well as many laughs (as I tried to recreate the reasons why only stupid people need to use bar graphs to see that 5 oranges are more than 3 oranges).