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I just called a question silly. I'm mad at myself for doing that. The person who asked is teaching math, but they are a high school teacher who may not have a math degree. There are many people teaching math as long-term subs, who aren't math experts.

Yes, that question was probably better posted in mse, but he didn't know that yet.

It seemed silly to ask if one line is longer than another. But if he is wondering something about infinity, that's not silly at all.

I chose to moderate here because I wanted this site to be welcoming to people who are homeschooling, or teaching elementary school. I blew it today.

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Don't be hard on yourself, we all make mistakes. Recognize it and move forward. The fact that you feel bad, probably means you will think twice about calling a question silly again.

I suggest that the next time you are posting, ask yourself: "Am I being critical?". If it is then I suggest that you wait an hour (or a time that works for you) before posting and then come back to it. That way you are less likely to post a gut reaction and will have time to think about how to frame a more appropriate response.

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Whenever I'm trying to explain something to someone who has less experience than me in a certain area, I try to remember that one time, I was in the same exact position as them, and at one point I did not know what they don't know. If you put yourself in others' shoes, you can come at it with a more empathetic approach, and you'll be able to explain it in a way that matches their level better. But yes, it's good that you're reflecting on it, and you can grow from that experience. :)

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I had a student simplify $2\pi x\ =\ \frac{\pi}{2}$ and said the result was $x=4$. A senior in pre-calc. It wasn't a 'typo' kind of mistake, I had to explain it for a good 10 minutes. It wasn't easy to keep my feelings from seeping through, but it's a different world. Covid has caused gaps. As you noted, there are people unqualified (not a criticism of you or them, it's a fact, there is a teacher shortage and kind people are filling in) to teach, but it's better than cancelling classes and losing a year.

You do a great job here, and reflecting on this means you care. You'll do even better for that one slip.

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  • $\begingroup$ Just out of curiosity, did you get a chance to identify the student's confusion? Guessing that you first crossed off $\pi$ on both sides, leaving $2x=\frac{1}{2} ,$ then talked about dividing both sides by $2 .$ Was their confusion somehow related to one of those steps? $\endgroup$
    – Nat
    Commented Sep 2, 2022 at 16:55
  • $\begingroup$ I mean, to speculate... I guess that they could've gotten to $2x = \frac{1}{2} ,$ then they knew to divide by $2 ,$ but... maybe they thought, like, $\frac{\frac{1}{2}}{2} = {2}^{-1} \times {2}^{-1} = {2}^{2} = 4 ,$ where the property of "dividing by 2" applied twice was sorta like a negative in that a-negative-times-a-negative-is-a-positive, so they figured that dividing by 2 twice was like multiplying by 4? Or.. maybe they just multiplied both sides by $2 ,$ finding $4x = 1 ,$ and then just decided to stop there, considering $4$ the answer? $\endgroup$
    – Nat
    Commented Sep 2, 2022 at 17:03
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    $\begingroup$ @Nat - sorry, this was so long ago. I see dozens of students a day, my role is an in-house math tutor at a high school, this specific incident could have been a number of students. This past school year there were so many students that had missing skills, in a way I hadn't seen before Covid. $\endgroup$
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica
    Commented Sep 3, 2022 at 11:02
  • $\begingroup$ When I was in secondary school, my teacher had taught about quadratic equations and he always gave examples where the discriminant was the square of a natural number, like 1, 4, 9, 16, .... At the first test he asked a question where the discriminant was 11. I was a nice boy and said nothing, but inside me my blood was boiling with rage (if he wanted such an exercise, he should have given one during class!!!). After some days the teacher had corrected the test and there was a bold red circle around my calculation of the discriminant: 81 - 80 = 11 :-) :-) :-) $\endgroup$
    – Dominique
    Commented Jan 23, 2023 at 14:24

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