The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, September 19, 1979, Image 11

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THE BATTALION Page 11
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1979
Course combats math anxieties
United Press International
DENVER — For people who
ave such a dread of math they
rould rather pick up the whole tab
tlunch rather than try to divide up
recost, Nancy Angle thinks she has
n answer.
The math teacher at the Univer
ity of Colorado’s Denver campus is
ffering a special course for people
tightened of math. She calls it
Combating Math Anxiety.”
Most people aren’t aware of the
iroblem of mathematics anxiety,
rat Angle says it is widespread and
lllicts millions of Americans. There
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eceptive,
is no known cure, but Angle says
her course provides a treatment.
According to her figures, two-
thirds of America’s college-educated
adults, many of them women, suffer
from some form of anxiety about
addition, subtraction and related
functions.
“This might simply be embar
rassment about using a pen and pad
to divide a luncheon ticket, or it
might be real terror about using
math on the job,” the university
professor said.
Angle, who has been a math
teacher for 13 years, became in-
national briefs
Chrysler chief resigns amid aid controversy
United Press International
DETROIT — Chrysler Corp. Chairman John J. Riccardo, who has
labored for months to win government aid for the struggling com
pany, has taken the ultimate step in that quest by announcing his
retirement.
Riccardo, 55, said Monday he will ask Chrysler directors to ap
prove his early retirement Thursday. The move clears the way for the
appointment of Chrysler President Lee A. lacocca, hired by Riccardo
last year, to take the chief executive post.
Like his predecessor, Lynn Townsend, Riccardo is stepping down
atatime of Chrysler crisis, but Riccardo said government support for
the firm now seems likely.
His retirement, he said, could help silence critics who have attrib
uted the company’s problems to mismanagement.
It also will satisfy his physicians, who Riccardo said recommended
he retire after he was hospitalized this summer for treatment of a
heart ailment.
Tri-nation Mideast talks begin in Washington
WASHINGTON — Egyptian, Israeli and American negotiators are
beginning a series of talks aimed at assembling a mutually acceptable
force to supervise the final stages of Israel’s withdrawal from the Sinai
Desert.
Tuesday’s talks, beginning a day after the first anniversary of the
Camp David accords, took place against a rising level of discord
between U.S. and Israeli officials over a series of issues, including
economic assistance and the Israeli bombing of southern Lebanon.
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance was to preside over the first session
ohhe talks, which will include Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan
and Defense Minister Ezer Weisman, and Egyptian Defense Minis
ter Kamal Hassan Ali.
Executive returns to job after three-year Ven
ezuelan ordeal
TOLEDO, Ohio — Dressed in a fashionable, gray pin-striped suit,
William F. Niehous strolled into is new office at Owens-Illinois Inc.
Monday and plopped down in a high-backed black leather chair.
The etched nameplate outside his office said simply. “W.F. Nieh
ous.” Only the flock of photographers peeking in the doorway hinted
there was something different about this working Monday.
For Niehous, the Owens-Illinois executive held captive by ter
rorists in the steamy jungles of Venezuela for more than three years,
his first day back at work was “an enjoyable return to reality.”
“I feel very great,” said Niehous, who was abducted from his
Caracas, Venezuela, home by leftist terrorists in 1976 and held cap
tive for 40 months.
terested in the problems of math
anxiety two years ago after teaching
special math courses for low achiev
ers. She said in order to teach stu
dents, they had to change their at
titude toward the whole subject.
“Math really has a bad image in
people’s minds,” she explained.
“When someone finds out I’m a
math teacher, he’ll say: ‘Oh, yuk. I
can’t even balance my checkbook’ or
Tt was my worst subject in school. ”
Angle said the attitude usually is
rooted in a person’s earliest experi
ence with math. She said the prob
lem stemmed from the fact many
teachers failed to make math rele
vant to their students.
“Math is an abstraction and, at
the high school level, it is taught as
if everyone were used to thinking in
abstractions, when in reality, they
are not,” she said.
She also notes that two-thirds of
her students are women. They seem
to have a special problem with math
and she believes a large part of that
is cultural.
Angle said she somewhat under
stands their fear because even she
suffered from a mild form of math
anxiety during her graduate school
days.
“H ere I was working on my
Ph.D. and teaching math and I had
his course that was really hard,” she
said. “It had me worried. I’d go
home at night and cry my eyes out.”
She said she believes it is neces
sary to make mathematics relevant
to the students and therefore con
centrates more on problem-solving
than on rote memorization. She said
there seems to be a disturbing cur
rent trend to “rote learning.”
“This whole back-to-basics
movement is creating individuals
who are whizzes when it comes to
formula math, but absolutely terri
ble when it comes to problem
solving,” she said. “This, to me, is
what math is all about.”
Gas talks find
U.S. diplomats
Mexico-bound
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Across from Star Furniture
CAP & G0WN/M0RTAR BOARD
The Senior Honor Society
invites you to a seminar on
DECISION
MAKING
by Dr. Ron Lewis
of the Academic Counseling Center
This Wed., Sept. 19, 7:30 p.m., rm. 206 MSC.
This is the second of three seminars in our Personal
Development series. Assertive Training will be covered
on Sept. 26, also at 7:30 p.m. in 206 MSC. The seminars
will be geared towards life after college and should be
of special interest to seniors.
Everyone is Welcome.
LIVE LIKE A PRINCE ...
without becoming a pauper
to do it!
Curtis Mathes now has a 3.5 cubic
foot refrigerator perfect for your dorm
room.
RENT BY THE MONTH OR BY THE
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Full-Size
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United Press International
WASHINGTON — Deputy
Secretary of State Warren Chris
topher plans to return to Mexico
for another round of negotiations
on the deadlocked issue of
natural gas sales to the United
States, U.S. officials said Tues
day.
The officials indicated Christ
opher probably will visit Mexico
City sometime before a third
meeting between President Car
ter and Mexican President Jose
Lopez Portillo, which is
scheduled Sept. 28-29 in Wash
ington.
This would be Christopher’s
second trip to Mexico in less than
a month. He made a trip there in
late August to talk with Mexican
Foreign Minister Jorge Cas
taneda, but that meeting ended
in a deadlock as far as the natural
gas negotiations were concerned.
The key issue in the natural
gas talks is price. Mexico wants
to tie its current gas price to that
of other fuels the gas would re
place, such as heating oil.
An earlier agreement between
the two American neighbors was
vetoed by former Energy Secre
tary James Schlesinger because
the Mexicans were asking for
$2.60 per thousand cubic feet-
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Quality Clothing & Accessories for
Men — Women — Children
Name Brand New Clothing at
Cost & Below
Special 10% Discount with this Ad &
Current A&M I.D. (Good thru Sept. 26)
OPEN:
M-F 10 til 6
Sat. 10 til 5
822 Villa Maria
Across from McDonald’s
in Bryan
a resale shop
779-7334
RUSSIAN FLU
STUDY VOLUNTEERS
If you were in last year’s Russian Flu S|udy, we want to
follow your protection through this coming fall and winter.
Please give us your new campus or local MAILING address and
phone number so we can send you more Information.
Fill in the form below and
- Mail to: Dr. J? Quarles
Dept, of Medical Microbiology
College of Medicine, TAMU
College Station, TX 77843
-or leave at Student Health Center
-or Call in information to 845-1313
Please Print: Name
Mailing Address
Phone
BAIXIUMKH
Snook, Texas
The Finest New
Dance Hall in Texas.
Sept. 22nd
B.W. Stevenson
Sept. 28th Texas Pride
Sept. 29th Flying Burrito Brothers
Advance ticket sales are available at
Budget Records & Tapes, Northgate
and Court’s Western Wear & Saddlery
in Culpepper Plaza & Manor East Mall.
Only 15-minutes from Bryan-College
Station. 3 miles west of Snook on FM 60
(intersection FM 60 & FM 3058).