Thursday, November 23, 2006

Quote from Andre Weil

At lunch, we were, as always, talking about students
and problems in teaching courses and the perceived
lack of response and interest from students, etc..
This subject could easily be in the category of
the 'Zendejas brothers' (source unknown: heard it
only from the authoritative source Abi at lunch),
in other words, easily a winning candidate
for the bore of the year award. However, coincidentally
I ran into the following quote yesterday from Andre Weil
the famous mathematician in an article on the
Mathematics Curriculum,"The American student...suffers
under some severe handicaps,...Apart from his lack of
earlier training in mathematics...,he suffers chiefly
from his lack of training in the fundamental skills ---
reading, writing and speaking...". I hope to write
on the subject of overcoming this handicap (I should
know, I suppose (?!)) to find a career in physics.
Now I have to rush off to a seminar.

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