They know a little calc before they get into physics. And they often tell me about how they used it in my calc class.
But, what I wish we could do is stop treating Statistics like it's... the math class for "weak" students who couldn't do calculus.
Part of the problem is there is still a tendency to classify kids as "math people" and "not math people" although I'm breaking my peers of this notion every chance I get. Part of it is this snobbishness pure math people have about stats.
@futurebird @whknott Agreed. Statistics is very important for understanding the world.
What made math hard for me when I was young was the preconception that "math is hard". So I expected it to be hard, and it was, until I realized it wasn't.
The other roadblock for me may be limited to a few people such as myself. I have a hard / impossible time learning things for which I see no purpose. Algebra was hard because uses for it were not discussed. "Just memorize this algorithm for factoring." Why? "So you pass the class." That doesn't work for me.
When I reached calculus it was clear how extremely useful it is. Now I needed algebra. The algebra came to me quick, easy, obvious, because I saw a use for it. I was endlessly puzzled over why two years of algebra in Junior High was so damned hard. And I didn't learn anything in that time.
