Re: teaching statistical methods by rules?

[Robert Frick]

Jerry Dallal wrote:
> 
> Robert Frick wrote:
> 
> >         I know it is hard to make statistics fun, but FOLLOWING
> RULES IS NEVER
> > FUN.  Not in math, not in games, nowhere.
> 
> In math and in games, following rules isn't just fun,
> IT'S THE LAW.  In fact, you can't have fun unless
> you follow them.  :-)

Well, technically, most real rules tell you what not to do -- they
usually don't tell you what to do, because that isn't fun.  In bridge,
the language of the bidding is very prescribed, but you almost always
have choices as to what you can bid.  On the other hand, the
prescription to bid 1NT with a balanced hand and 15-17 points tells you
what to do, but is not a real rule of the game.  Instead, it is a rule
the experts constructed so that the game wouldn't be fun.  Ha ha, they
really constructed the rule so that people could play better bridge. 
Destroying the game is an unintended byproduct.

        In math, aren't students often taught algorithms for solving problems? 
Again, no fun.

Bob F.