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Discalculia...

I get the feeling by reading various posting to this topic that people are
generally ignorant to the true meaning of this word, when mentioned in
connection with the 'Americans with Disabilities Act'. The postings pretty
much imply that this is a scheme of lazy students to get by some unwelcome
mathematics requirement. This is about as far from the truth as it goes.

I so happen to have a friend that suffers from this condition. Let me
give you an example on how this affects her. You could ask her
what a derivative is and she could explain to you that this is the slope of
the tangent (we are talking first semester calculus). She could draw you a
picture of secants and go over to the limit. However, try to get her do a
simplification of a double fraction and it might take her half an hour. Do
you really think somebody like this should not graduate because she
cannot do standard tests in standard time?

My friend got diagnosed early in grade school and at this time she was
told she would not even graduate from high school. Now she holds a
baccalaureate and is applying for graduate school (obviously not in
math). She works for school at least 60 hours a week. (How much do/did
you work?) Still, it does not decrease her discalculia by an epsilon.

Is multiplicating without a calculator or solving a quadratic equation
in less than a minute absolutely neccessary to hold a good job? Think of
dentists, for example. How many dentists keep their own books? If
somebody has problems with specific tasks then nowadays one can always
hire somebody else to do that task. I would be much more confident to
go to this hypothetical dentist that cannot multiply, but has a gift
for medicine, than to go to a quack who received straight  'A's in
mathematics.

Please find the handicapped student services on your campus and get
some information.

Uwe F. Mayer
Department of Mathematics
University of Utah

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Q: What is the differenc between ignorance and apathy?
A: I don't know an' I don't care.
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