文档介绍：Afternote 2 to Introduction—Why is Statistics Such a Difficult Subject? 19
AFTERNOTE 2
TO Why is Statistics Such
INTRODUCTION
a Difficult Subject?
Why is statistics such a tough subject for so many people?
“Among mathematicians and statisticians who teach introduc-
tory statistics, there is a tendency to view students who are
not skillful in mathematics as unintelligent,” say two of the
authors of the best-selling introductory text (McCabe and
McCabe, 1989, p. 2). This is out-and-out wrong; lack of gen-
eral intelligence on the part of students is not the root of the
problem.
Scan this book and you will find almost no formal mathemat-
ics. Yet nearly every student finds the subject very difficult—
as difficult as anything taught at universities. The root of the
difficulty is that the subject matter is extremely difficult. Let’s
find out why.
It is easy to find out with high precision which movie is play-
ing tonight at the local theater; you can call on the phone and
ask, or look in the newspaper. But consider by contrast how
difficult it is to determine with accuracy a) what will be the
result of more than a hundred million Americans voting for
president a month hence; the best attempt usually is a sample
of 2000 people, selected in some fashion or another that is far
from random, weeks before the election, asked questions that