Beyond statistics

Abstract

«"Hey teacher, are we numbskulls?" This surprising question was asked by my students with a smirk, but also with a slightly downcast look, signalling "we ask in jest, but not really." Since it was probably too embarrassing, two of them came to ask.

I don’t remember my answer; it was probably a canned repartee, given the cognitive overload of the end of the course and the fact that it was a good curveball. As a teacher, I sometimes have these boilerplate answers that—like astrological predictions—are just vague enough to apply to a thousand situations. But when the chaos of the course was over, I felt like I’d missed something. Besides, what does it mean to be a numbskull?

We sometimes forget how much courage it takes to ask a teacher a question about something other than the chart on page 22 of the course notes. Feeling guilty of having extinguished a spark of student courage through a lack of availability, I suggested to the two students that they take the time to revisit the question.» -- AQPC