Some Applied Mathematics

By Bobby Neal Winters

Take control of your space.

That is the advice I gave to my students when I used to teach the introductory level math courses.  You need to find a quiet place.  You need to have your paper, your pencil, your eraser, and your calculator all right there.  If you need a protractor, a ruler, or a compass, have them all at hand.

Have your space organized and free of distractions.  Don’t tolerate invasions of it. It’s okay if someone borrows your protractor, but make them put the son of a gun back.

But control and order are the words of import.

Once you have control, you can proceed.

This is for basic mathematics.  The strength of higher mathematics is the abstraction.  Take a simple, concrete, easy-to-understand notion and raise it to a higher realm of thought.

One of the jobs that I have--either done one way or another--is helping students who are in some sort of academic trouble. A lot of this--and I didn’t keep track of the numbers, but a lot--is caused by not being in a stable situation at home.  They are in a position where they can’t set up the study environment that I described above.  It could be there are financial issues; it could be the parents have problems; it could be drugs and alcohol.

Whatever the reason, there is instability. Until that is fixed, the student is not going to have their best shot at an education.  Indeed, until that is fixed, the student--the human--is not going to have a good shot at life.  If they can get that instability fixed, it will be more important to them in the end than 100 college degrees.

They need to get control of their space.

Sometimes--often--the issue is deeper. The instability lies within themselves. Sometimes the drugs and alcohol are simply self-medication for a deeper illness.  We are getting a better understanding of mental health issues, and I hope we are on our way to being more enlightened. This is a hard step because at the mildest people with mental health issues can be annoying and sometimes they can be scary.

There are things that can be done with self-discipline, daily routines, building good habits, and counselling, but sometimes meds are the only way.  The meds, well..Sometimes they work better than others. They are hard to get calibrated to begin with, and then they can get uncalibrated and everything comes to pieces until the right mix can be found again.  

I’ve seen it over and over and over from multiple angles. 

But many people are striving with it in silence.

In order to proceed they must get control of their space.  It will be of more worth to them than 1000 college degrees if they do.

I am currently putting a workshop together.  That’s what has me thinking about all of this.  There are certain items that you have to have.  You have to know where they are.  That means that you have to have a place to put them; the way that things are stored has to make sense; and you have to put things back once you’ve used them.  You can loan things out, but when they are returned--if they are returned--you need to be sure they are back where they belong.

Because this is your space.

This transfers to the job as well.  You can see how a bookkeeper might do this; you can see how someone in the trades might; but it is also applicable in management.  There are certain things that have to be kept in order; certain things that need to be controlled.

But it is all the same principle.

Bobby Winters, a native of Harden City, Oklahoma, blogs at redneckmath.blogspot.com and okieinexile.blogspot.com. He invites you to “like'' the National Association of Lawn Mowers on Facebook. Search for him by name on YouTube. )