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"To me, the fear of being seen as saying something trivial is the biggest impediment to free speech in a math classroom"

Not going to lie, this fear held me back more than a few times in college math classes.

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Same in physics. You'd think it would get better after a few semesters but it kind of became one of the constants during my studies. Especially in math 1-4 and in almost every theoretical physics lecture I attended. The worst was quantum field theory with a close second in classical mechanics. Most students, the tutors and the professors somehow really liked to appear superior. Asking things in general during a lecture was almost frowned upon in most cases. Nobody wanted to acknowledge their "inadequacy". I vividly remember the faces of people looking with elitist impatience (for a lack of a better term) at those who dared to ask for a different explanation or a repetition if something was unclear.

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