Activity Theory

I am here working along, and I hear my next door neighbor; a math professor with some training in Cuba. I used to be a bit of a Marxist earlier in life. I heard the term that is my title for this note. I go to Wikipedia and find out that a current practitioner is G.Z Bedny, I search for some of his work, and I find an article, "A Heart Rate ..." This is a pdf article in: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND ERGONOMICS 2001, VOL. 7, NO. 2, 121–133

This is a proposal to measure heart rate of workers to make a cost/benefit analysis for installing air conditioners.

Now I ask myself, what do ergonomic ideas devised to get the most juice from human beings have to do with math education?

I guess I am being very harsh here. But deep down I feel that every scientific field should devote more time for Relevant Science.

Maybe my colleague's methods work, I really don't know. I'm just in a weird mood. I guess is better than the training of our Governor as an accountant in a Mexican private university.

Oh, our Governor represents a leftist Mexican party, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). I do not feel a member, of any political movement, or for that matter, any Academy of like minded scholars.


I should try to be more understanding. Prof. Bedny very likely was not making that much money under the Soviet system to satisfy his needs. What was he supposed to do, to convince American intellectuals that the only true Theory of Reality is Marxism? Maybe he tried, but he ended up at Newark, of all places, calculating the savings of installing air conditioners for American workers or not.

Workers of the World Unite!

Oh, well.