Peter O'Donnell – Medium

Peter O'Donnell

Peter O'Donnell
in
Age of Awareness

We teach algorithms in lieu of mathematics

Another day, another class. It was only mid-morning, but my pupil was struggling to arouse her synapses. The topic was familiar enough —…

5 min readDec 28, 2023

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We teach algorithms in lieu of mathematics

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Peter O'Donnell
in
Age of Awareness

Why do we teach by rote? And how can we do better?

The morning was unremarkable. Having taken the first ten minutes to settle my eighth-grade physics class and direct their attention to the…

7 min readOct 15, 2023

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Why do we teach by rote? And how can we do better?

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Peter O'Donnell
in
Age of Awareness

What outliers tell us about our school systems

It was eighth-grade mathematics. Our teacher sat at the front corner of the room, an orderly stack of test papers resting on her desk. One…

8 min readOct 15, 2023

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What outliers tell us about our school systems

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Peter O'Donnell
in
Age of Awareness

Beyond PEMDAS: making sense of the arithmetic order of operations

Many of us will have encountered the mnemonic PEMDAS, sometimes Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, or one of its synonyms¹ at some time…

11 min readOct 1, 2023

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Beyond PEMDAS: making sense of the arithmetic order of operations

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Peter O'Donnell
in
Age of Awareness

Separating education from validation

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education,” “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education,” or…

8 min readNov 23, 2022

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Separating education from validation

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Peter O'Donnell
in
Age of Awareness

Rethinking the Body Positive

Self-acceptance is not synonymous with empowerment

8 min readJun 18, 2022

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Rethinking the Body Positive

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Peter O'Donnell
in
Age of Awareness

No, the world is not improving

Preface

3 min readJun 8, 2022

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No, the world is not improving

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Peter O'Donnell

Understanding the two most important principles of physical training

For most of us, the basic mechanisms behind training and conditioning would seem straightforward: if we train hard and consistently, we…

10 min readNov 27, 2019

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Understanding the two most important principles of physical training

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Peter O'Donnell

Identifying our own motivations to exercise

Antonia was a new client: exceptionally tall, timid and self-conscious. Over the course of several weeks, I had watched her grow gradually…

5 min readNov 14, 2019

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Identifying our own motivations to exercise

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Peter O'Donnell
in
In Fitness And In Health

The evolution of the gymnasium — from service to product

It was 1994. A skinny, hesitant nineteen-year-old man stepped into the nightclub-like darkness of a popular inner-city Melbourne gymnasium…

6 min readSep 7, 2019

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The evolution of the gymnasium — from service to product

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Peter O'Donnell

Peter O'Donnell

School/university teacher, computer scientist (BITS), high-performance coach (ASCA L2), and passionate advocate of social justice

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