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"Knowing Why"
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Knowing Why
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Latest Medusa Comic

Knowing Why

by Paul Taylor on April 25, 2017 at 12:03 am
Story: Wapsi-Archive
Characters: Atsali, Digit
Location: Gryphon High

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Discussion (45) ¬

  1. DR.REVENGE
    April 25, 2017, 12:07 am | # | Reply

    Just like home schooling for Digit.

  2. Akamar
    April 25, 2017, 12:10 am | # | Reply

    She blew their minds I guessing…

  3. Sjmcc13
    April 25, 2017, 12:26 am | # | Reply

    Proper education does test for understanding and comprehension, not just regurgitation, though allot or programs focus on the latter as it is easier, plus teaching to the test is a thing in to many schools.

    • gyrre
      April 25, 2017, 1:23 am | # | Reply

      American public schools. No Child Left Behind was bad enough, but Race to the Top replaced it and made teaching to the test the norm. Btw, RttT is NCLB on crack and meth.

      Politicians should be barred from meddling with education.

      • Hinoron
        March 24, 2021, 10:06 am | #

        “A students work for the B students, B students work for the C students, and the C student run the world” as the saying goes.

        We have the C students dictating education policy.

      • Mike
        May 22, 2024, 1:27 pm | #

        Politicians should be barred, period.

    • illiad
      April 25, 2017, 2:18 am | # | Reply

      heh, algebra and calculus may not be needed unless you want to go into physics, or teach it…

      BUT it does ‘stretch the mind’, and see if you are able to do that kind of stuff…

      • Hanineal
        April 25, 2017, 3:40 am | #

        Almost any technical or scientific field will require algebra at the minimum. I work in a diagnostic lab and do at least some algebraic calculations every day.

        I even use algebra when calculating budgets and future investment strategies.

      • Simon
        April 25, 2017, 6:24 am | #

        Calculus, I’ll grant, I’ve rarely needed in the twenty years since leaving high-school. But algebra? That’s pretty fundamental to daily life… the ability to apply reasoning to numbers. Even if you don’t make a living out of that kind of thing, the skills apply to stuff like managing a household budget…

      • Graybeard
        April 25, 2017, 9:37 am | #

        This is a widespread, erroneous, and therefore insidious mistake as regards “needing” to know calculus. Almost everybody solves at least one calculus problem a day without even thinking about it. Slowing down a fast-moving car to stop at a stop sign? You’re solving a calculus problem. Catching a thrown ball? You’re solving a calculus problem. And so on.

        Calculus is something we do intuitively. Algebra is not. IMO calculus should be taught much earlier, and more generally, than it is, because it *is* something we do — all the time — in our daily lives.

      • Random Guy
        April 25, 2017, 9:53 am | #

        I’m a blacksmith and welder as a hobby and use calculus almost every day. So much for being ‘just a craftsman’!

      • joecrouse
        April 25, 2017, 4:03 pm | #

        just about any function you do in a spredsheet short of basic addition multiplication is done algebraically.

        if $value of $Cell dervived from information in $othercell is between x and Y do $action

        I just had to do all today for someone who was making a spredsheet to calculate a users ability to make up her religious oriented time off ( she has 10 weeks to make it up after taking the time off) she was doing it in 15 minute increments
        the whole spread sheet was more or less Is value of hours worked per day 8+.15 yes no. If value of week x is greater than (8+.15)*$payweek days= yes Add total of all weeks=yes Is value of total= time off at the end of term…

        all of it every single bit has to be done in an LOGICAL fashion algebra IS logic.

      • joecrouse
        April 25, 2017, 4:11 pm | #

        sorry I disagree greybeard you are not doing the math to catch a ball or slowing a car. the MATH is describing the action. infact your brain is more or less approximating motion into the future as any fielding position knows your first placement is only an approximation of what you expect can happen. (bad hops happen) and sometimes you get lucky with an unassisted triple play.

      • Bratty Roger
        May 13, 2017, 4:18 pm | #

        After 40-some years of living;
        I’ve discovered that SOLVING equations is actually pretty easy (once you have enough multiplication stuff memorized), as long as you remember/keep_track _of what the symbols are telling you to do with the numbers.
        FIGURING OUT an equation that will give you the information you’re LOOKING FOR, on the other hand, is where math starts getting difficult.

    • Jason
      April 25, 2017, 11:49 am | # | Reply

      There are certain things that flat out need to be memorized. Your basic arithmetic facts, for example. Spelling words. Even homophones (don’t get me started on that one). I have seen people decry rote memorization yet wonder why kids can’t do basic math without a calculator or misspell every third or fourth word.

      You need to have the basics, your foundation, down COLD. Then we can move on to using to comprehension, amalgamation, and synthesis.

      • RoyD
        April 25, 2017, 3:35 pm | #

        Agreed. You need to grok the basics, and you need to know how to apply them.

        Unfortunately, it seems that most schools oscillate between the two: eras of rote memorization, where students seem to be confused by how to apply what they’ve memorized; then eras of applied courses, where the issues you mentioned popped up.

      • joecrouse
        April 25, 2017, 4:06 pm | #

        my god do I agree. holy crap. ALL of it is memorization even algebra is memorization at least the various rules to apply to the problem. So is Trig and geometry for that matter. the answer is the application of those rules. misapplication of rules allows 2=1 in algebra (normally to get that answer you need a divide by zero)

      • BarerMender
        April 25, 2017, 4:26 pm | #

        I’ll never forget watching a kid pull out a calculator to multiply something by 100. A big kid.

  4. Dave
    April 25, 2017, 12:30 am | # | Reply

    Young body, old soul?

    And, Atsali is mistaken. It’s the inability to do [i]calculus[/i] which will bring on the zombie apocalypse.

    • fairportfan
      April 25, 2017, 1:09 am | # | Reply

      Don’t you hate it when you think the board uses BBCode and it actually wants HTML?

  5. DukeW
    April 25, 2017, 1:53 am | # | Reply

    Calculus is something my dentist scrapes off my teeth…. XD

  6. Raron
    April 25, 2017, 1:57 am | # | Reply

    No, The lack of common sense will cause the zombie apocalypse.

  7. mdh
    April 25, 2017, 4:48 am | # | Reply

    Maybe… just maaaybeee…

    ZOMBIES will cause the zombie ‘pocalips?

  8. Michael Birks
    April 25, 2017, 5:32 am | # | Reply

    Osmotic Effect from living at the Capital-L Library?

    • Mark N
      April 25, 2017, 4:40 pm | # | Reply

      Actually it is from being conceived and born in the Akashic record field of the library. Digit is the end product of several generations of spiders born in the Library itself. It has also given her a longer lifespan than an ordinary jumping spider. I seem to recal that according to Paul she is over 16 Earth years old.

      • Mark N
        April 25, 2017, 4:41 pm | #

        Think of it like on Doctor Who. River Song was conceived in the Tardis while it was in the Time Vortex and so she became a Time Lady.

      • fairportfan
        April 25, 2017, 6:21 pm | #

        I believe he said twenty, but developmentally equivalent to a seixteen-year-old

  9. Lee Jackson
    April 25, 2017, 6:38 am | # | Reply

    Digit is going to be a problem student. As in, “how do we teach someone so damned intelligent?” problem.

    • Dorje Sylas
      April 25, 2017, 7:52 am | # | Reply

      That’s like asking “how do I as a high school teacher, teach someone with a bachelor’s degree?” Which is comparing apples to zucchini. Really Digit should likely study (if needed) for and take a High School Equivalency certificate, the GED or the like. It seems like Gryphon High considers her to almost have an honorary bachelors in Library/Information science.

      Digit’s education at this point isn’t “factoid” memorization, but working with her to figure out how strong her academic skills are. While she may have theoretically knowledge of things like “time management”, putting those skills into practice is quite different.

      • datora
        April 25, 2017, 9:41 am | #

        In one of the recent strips, it was stated explicitly that Digit has (at least) the equivalent of university-tier knowledge. She’s being placed by the para-community (MIB) in Gryphon specifically to develop her socialization skills.

        As per today’s installment, the teaching faculty at Gryphon have clearly recognized her advanced academic skills and are taking appropriate measures to develop them. Her real tests in upcoming life are going to be interacting with the rest of her class peers.

        Of course I want to see her connect with Atsali … as friends, the two of them could be especially good for each other in this area. Atsali’s genius will also find Digits intellect challenging in Very Good Ways.

      • fairportfan
        April 25, 2017, 6:22 pm | #

        Digit is in high school to learn how to (appear) to be human.

    • Terabiel
      April 26, 2017, 2:41 am | # | Reply

      I completed my Bachelor’s degree the same year I started highschool. I still attended High School all four years in order to develop my social skills. I’d skipped so many grades (4th-8th) that my parents felt it was important to go back to school. I hated it… but I appreciate it now.

  10. datora
    April 25, 2017, 9:59 am | # | Reply

    The current artwork available on ebay is completely adorable … but it made me wistful to see Digit diving into the pool with four arms. Just seems that if she gets the coordination down, she could be a demon-tier swimmer. Swimming was one of my main sports for many years, even competed at the state level on my high school teams, so I have a particular nostalgia for that.

    The mechanics of such a complex double-shoulder structure, though, would give any anatomist &/or artist fits working that out. Not a task to be envied. I’ve seen a number of takes & attempts on it over the years, some far more successful than others.

    • Guesticus
      April 25, 2017, 10:51 am | # | Reply

      You think a double-shoulder structure is tough, try triple, and each arm is semi-autonomous (with one hand being extremely grabby, so much so it will grope her owners’ own bewb in the tub)

      • Sheik
        April 25, 2017, 1:52 pm | #

        I understand the octopus has more neural tissue in its arms than in its brain, and _it_ is the largest in the non-vertebrate world. I presume this is because all those arms are at least semi-autonomous.

      • joecrouse
        April 25, 2017, 4:08 pm | #

        lol someones reading spinnerette (or is the author himself) Dang bottom lefty…

      • Mark N
        April 25, 2017, 4:43 pm | #

        She is not Spinerette.

      • Mark N
        April 25, 2017, 4:47 pm | #

        Shoot Joecrouse beat me to it.

      • fairportfan
        April 25, 2017, 6:23 pm | #

        Sheik: The squid runs MUCH larger

  11. Ravenpuff
    April 25, 2017, 1:20 pm | # | Reply

    I can’t help but me greatly amused by this potential friendship. A girl who can’t read faces and a girl who can’t make faces.

    • Mark N
      April 25, 2017, 4:45 pm | # | Reply

      Actually she did when she was crying on Shelly. I would think that would be her first autonomous usage of her facial muscles. She can build off of that in time.

  12. Robert Nowall
    April 25, 2017, 4:56 pm | # | Reply

    You are way too advanced for your age, Digit.

    • fairportfan
      April 25, 2017, 6:24 pm | # | Reply

      She’s there to learn to (appear) to be her age.

  13. Centaur71
    April 25, 2017, 10:10 pm | # | Reply

    JEEZIS CHRYST!!! Digit is NO dumb shit; Imagine what ALL spiders throughout the world must know…

  14. Killjoy
    April 25, 2017, 10:18 pm | # | Reply

    Digit you rock.

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