Reply #130: Actually I do recognize that everyone doesn't think the same..

[Fumesucker]

Hence my little joke about math geeks not getting the joke. :)

My scores were generally higher in the "literature" portions of the curriculum but I didn't do badly at all at the math portions either. To an extent I was intimidated by my father (not deliberately on his part) who was about one small scintilla away from being a mathematical genius so I doubted my own abilities because I was measuring myself against someone I admired who was better than I would ever be.

Also your point about the instructor's bias being easy to discern shows that you are ignoring the differences between people, for a great many people such a bias is far from easy to ascertain. The more socialized you are the easier such a task is, for those of us who lack social skills it's a very chancy thing picking up on those cues.

My daughter failed algebra three times in HS, once in summer school for which she paid out of her own pocket, she then took algebra a final time and made an A in the course.. The difference? The first three times it was taught by coaches that apparently didn't connect with the way she thought, the last time was a non-coach and she found the subject almost easy.