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A comment on Can progressives be convinced that genetics matters?. Parent comment

Re:Can progressives be convinced that genetics matters? by zozbot234 on Monday September 06, 2021 @05:16PM (#28438203)
Look, there's a "valid medical descriptor" for grandpa who is in a nursing home with Alzheimer's disease, but this kind of thing is totally immaterial to people who are in school today. There's no way that they'd have that level of cognitive impairment. Saying that "some people just can't learn" so-called "advanced" math such as college algebra and calculus, or programming for that matter, is just pointless speculation with zero evidence to back it. Most likely they can, we just can't be assed to teach them effectively.
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Re:Can progressives be convinced that genetics matters? by sjwalter on Monday September 06, 2021 @06:40PM (#28438925)
> Saying that "some people just can't learn" so-called "advanced" math such as college algebra and calculus, or programming for that matter, is just pointless speculation with zero evidence to back it.

What about the anecdotes of millions of people who self-profess that despite very much effort, they just can't wrap their head around some advanced math concepts? That doesn't count as evidence?

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Re:Can progressives be convinced that genetics matters? by jlokier on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @02:23AM (#28441544)
There are also plenty of anecdotes of people who self-profess that for years or decades they couldn't wrap their head around some math concepts, and then one day they met a teacher who explained it in a different way than any teacher before had done, and it "clicked" for them as adults.

I don't know how to weigh these anecdotes, but I think that's suggestive that the methods of teaching might be relevant even to people who struggle with math for decades.

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Re:Can progressives be convinced that genetics matters? by bawolff on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @02:13AM (#28441487)
Honestly no. Most people say i can't do X when really they mean, i've decided that its not worth the effort/i dont want to.

If you were arguing that math comes easier for some people than others, sure that's strong evidence. If you're arguing that they are literally incapable, and no set of curcumstances would allow them to learn - that is a very different claim and needs very different evidence.

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