I simply must not skip yet another day. What about my precious blog? What about my legion of fans?
So, what do I have to say?
It was a fine day. Then, a downpour. It has been a good autumn, leaves just the right colors and progressing just right from green to color to bare tree with leaves scattered all around. By the way, we believe in leaves. Well, my wife does. I haven't actually given it much thought. You can tell how high the subject rates with me when you read my confessional words that I haven't read anything about the health of lawns, the politics of collecting the leaves and related subjects. My friends, the master gardeners, collect leaves and put them on their garden.
I taught a course to undergraduates and a few graduate students that was called "Tests and Measurements." There is something in mathematics called measure theory but that is not what I am focusing on. I read today that more men than women in a survey said that winter was their favorite of the four seasons. I also taught a fun course to only graduate, experienced, seasoned teachers called Personal Reading for Professional Development. That course taught me that asking for a person's favorite, or number one, can be quite misleading.
I advise taking a step back and asking how a person feels about winter. I would not be surprised if any season gets more votes as "popular" or "good" just before it begins than it does after ⅔ of that season has passed. I think a researcher can get more valuable data with a slight change in approach. Ask a reasonable sized group: "How do you feel about winter coming?" Another sample can be asked "Do you like winter?" The data I read this morning emphatically rated winter as the least cited of the four seasons as a person's favorite.
I say develop a more sophisticated approach. Look out the window or step outside. How does what you see or feel strike you? Pretty or not?
