[macspoofing]

>There’s one kind of student I routinely encounter, usually in a freshman calculus course, that really boils my blood: the failing student who “has always been good at math.”

I understand the larger point about the difference between high-school math and high-level mathematics, but come on, don't be so pedantic! Everyone calls whatever it is you study in High-School & Elementary school - Math.

On a related matter, physicists and other scientists have done a pretty good job of communicating to the general public what it is they do. On the other hand, very few people actually know what professional Mathematicians actually do - something I realized when I struggled to explain it to my dad the other day.

[colomon]

Also, put it into the terms he'd like to put it into: His failing student has always been good at symbol manipulation, but now that he's gotten to this teacher's more advanced symbol manipulation, he's failing. Suddenly it sounds like the kid has a perfectly valid concern, quite possibly with this guy's teaching style, and the teacher's response is to make fun of the kid for using the word "math" in the fashion 99% of the American population uses it.

[SamuelMulder]

Your two points are really the same point. The reason that people don't understand what mathematicians do, is because we've been referring to calculation as mathematics our whole lives. If we did a better part separating the two out earlier, people would understand which part mathematicians work on.

[jafaku]

Well? What do you do?