in his article; 'Taming of a mathematician'. But my father had to meet
my teacher for my poor performance in mathematics when I was in high
school. He did not want to see my teacher. He was proud of himself as
a mathematician and he was afraid if the tutors at the University
found out about his daughter' poor performance in mathematics? But it
was his duty to meet my teacher.
My teacher complained my father that it was the third time I had
failed in mathematics and she told him about my carelessness. She said
I was not stupid and I knew when to add or multiply but I did them
wrong. She also said I had copied wrong – 25 instead of 55. She told
again that I did it so badly at the beginning.
Here my father' writing about his meeting with my teacher in his article….
".......................................................
...........................................................
She said, 'Look how your daughter has constructed a right angle. Can
you imagine anyone constructing a right angle, 45, 60, and 30 degree
using protractor? I could, because my daughter had done just that; but
I didn't say anything. She continued 'To construct a right angle, all
you have to do is bisect a straight line segment, which measures two
right angles, by using a compass and ruler, you get 45 degree. To
construct….(She continued her speech about using compass and ruler to
find out 60, 30 degree and so on)
" 'I said, 'but is it mentioned in the question that all constructions
are to be done with ruler and compass?'
She replied, 'Of course not. That's to be understood. The way some
parents try to justify their children's doings-it's really amazing.'
'Understood? Understood indeed? That's what intuitionists say. But
Pure Mathematics does not accept Intuitionism. It accepts Formalism,
which means taking nothing as understood unless stated so at the
beginning.' That was what I wanted to say, but I didn't. After all, I
knew that we could not teach Formalism to high school students. I
thanked her for the welfare of my daughter and left."
...........................
....................
After that, my father called me and showed me how to instruct a right
angle 45, 60 and 30 degree using a ruler and compasses.
My farther wrote about it in his article and it was published in the
newspaper; Working People's Daily in 1987.
I had faced similar problems between my teachers and my father during
my experiences of my school and University life. The problems in which
I met were not only the same as I met when I was in High School, but
also were as higher as the level I reached. I had to obey the rules
that my teachers made for having good marks in examinations and I had
to listen the formalism of our pure mathematics of my father for
having fully understand the mathematics theories and problems.
Luckily, I was not too young to call my father for meeting my teacher
as I was a school girl.
So, I myself was to be obedient between my teacher and my father until
the time I obtained my M.Sc degree.
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