I must be getting too old to teach math. I'm getting ready for one college class in which I am expected to have students get into groups on the first day and follow folding directions for making an origami fortune teller! (Like this http://ala13.ala.org/files/ala13/origam ... -print.pdf)

I'm reminded of this old story:

Teaching Math In 1950 .....

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

Teaching Math In 1960 .....

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

Teaching Math In 1970 .....

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?

Teaching Math In 1980 .....

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

Teaching Math In 1990 .....

By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees. (There are no wrong answers.)

You should only teach classes for which you have control over the content. From you comment I assume that is not the case here.

And you forgot Teaching Math in 1900...

A logger sells a truckload of lumber. Research average expected revenues and production costs and determine the expected profit.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

If you start them off making a fortune teller, they will think you are underestimating their intelligence. Instead, show them what real mathematicians fold: http://www.theiff.org/oexhibits/paper01.html

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Patience, grasshopper.

Usually you don't have a choice.

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Sure he does. He can retire. Also, I have total control over how I teach my classes.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

Maybe he can't retire (when I was teaching, I couldn't, and I needed the money.) If you give the practical part of classes and not the theoretical classes, other people choose what is taught and how. Not all teachers are assigned "class planning" when more than one teacher is involved, and they also need to teach the same to all classes in the same course. And I'm probably missing quite a few other cases.

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Except for textbook choice, I have complete control of my algebra, trigonometry, calculus, and statistics courses at Purdue. (I haven't taught a 400-level or above math class since I left Indiana University to become an editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica.) Every part of this class at Ivy Tech is programmed state-wide--activities, homework, quizzes, tests, etc. I applauded when the curriculum was changed to no longer require nursing students to take basic algebra classes (yeah, high school math) at Ivy Tech, but now I find that we are giving them grade school art material...

Hardly seems worth bothering with an instructor. Just record a robot delivering the class.

Actually, I am teaching an online business calculus class this semester for the first time and I have a feeling that after I have done it a few times to smooth out the wrinkles then the video lectures and online assignments I have created will just be handed off to someone else to "teach" during summer school. I refuse to teach in the summer.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

Yeah, I went through a certification program in order to teach online, though I haven't done so yet. We seem to be heading that way. In fact, I recall some of us at Indiana University being approached back in the 1980s about taping our courses. And I follow some of the ongoing debate. For example: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/ar ... ve/375152/

Uh, perhaps that chould have been "what's a truck?"

If it's 1900, what's a truck? << or rather would have been confused by the meaning then is use since moving by rail utilized at least two trucks >>

In the rural area where I live, the first truck in town was circa 1930.

Good point. I stand corrected. Let's change it to "teaching math in 1930".

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

Wheeled carts were sometimes called trucks in 1800. We could be talking about a smaller quantity of lumber than would fit on a gasoline-powered truck.

Wheeled carts were sometimes called trucks in 1800. We could be talking about a smaller quantity of lumber than would fit on a gasoline-powered truck.[/quote]

It is precisely the change of the meaning/use of words over time that we are talking about. So meaning in 1800 not the same as in 1900. Obviously the meaning in 1800 could not yet have been associated with the wheel units of railroad cars for the same reason the meaning in 1900 could not have referred to highway trucks. Did not yet exist << OK, I might be wrong about "truck" in 1800 as tram lines and gravity lines did already exist and "truck" might have been used there. Anybody up on the history of mining terms because that's where I would expect it in use if anywhere? >>

I'm on campus now, so I don't have access to my OED. However, I seem to recall that the term truck goes back hundreds of years to refer to the wheeled cart that ship's cannons were mounted upon. (I may have come across this use in the Master and Commander series of books.)

Google books search is pretty great for this. Here's a reference to a "motor baggage truck" in Popular Mechanics, 1907:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Fd4DAA ... 22&f=false

Perhaps even more exciting for us, here are two references to logging trucks specifically, from 1907 and 1912:

http://books.google.com/books?id=_M2ZAA ... ck&f=false

http://books.google.com/books?id=yUIhAQ ... ck&f=false

Note that both of these logging trucks seem to be attached to engines and running on rails, but that doesn't affect the math problem in any way.

This may have been true Pre-1990, but certainly not today...

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"This is a game that rewards patience and balance. You must think like a man of action and act like a man of thought."
-Jonas Skarssen

I love the way that "too old to teach" has become a deep and researched discussion into the semantic uses of the word "truck" over the different eras

We may be too old to teach but we are not too old to learn.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

And that the more likely remote origin of the RR "truck" since the recoil carriages of ship cannons were four wheel heavy load bearers as opposed to "carts" which we distinguish from "wagons" by being two wheeled as opposed to four wheeled. Field artillery was usually mounted on two wheeled mounts (easier to quickly turn) though when caissons traveled they sometimes had the "tailstock" supported by another (smaller wheeled) cart.

But I rather suspect that the direct connection would be from mining.

My eyes are getting to old to read the OED, even with the included magnifying glass!

With some strain, I can see the oldest use for trucke (1364) is connected with exchange of commodities or barter. Hence, the terms early use for wages and various transactions. Its nautical use dates to 1611 for the solid wooden wheels attached to the undercarriage of ship's cannons. Its more general usage to describe a wheeled vehicle, or wagon, used for transporting heavy materials seems to date to 1774.

Keep on trucking!