My, Aren't We Snooty?

Mary and I needed a short vacation. Luckily, the 'rents were willing to go back to full-time parental duties for two days when they were in town. They did the school routines and got Grace and Caleb to all their activities. It was a great time away for Mary and me and the children enjoyed the grandparents.

Grace is constantly drawing. She has a large collection of markers to entertain herself. While we were gone, Grace decided to draw. She asked my mother to join in. Mom saw all the markers and decided to teach Grace how to graph.

Now, I believe in the power of education. I am excited for Grace to learn new lessons and ask tough questions. I believe all children need to be exposed to math, science, the humanities, and the arts early. An education changes lives. Pedagogy notwithstanding, I cringed when I learned my mother was teaching Grace to graph.

Why?

Because my name is Jared and I am a graph snob. Incorrigibly so and unrepentant. If anyone is going to teach my child how to graph, it has to be me. How did I miss out on this already?

(If you feel that you may suffer from graph snobbery, a tool is included below to aid in your diagnosis. Do yourself a favor and take the test today. If you can confirm that you are a graph snob, do the world a favor and teach them how to graph.)

Grace's Marker Bar Chart:
Graph Snob Diagnostic - You may be a graph snob if you can answer the following questions in the affirmative.

1) Can you say that you have never created a pie chart?
2) Do you shun 3-D graphs at all costs?
3) Are you sick everytime you look at a USA Today graph?
4) Do you try to use anything but Excel to graph?
5) If you must use Excel, at a minimum do you customize the titles, labels, axes, tick marks, background and colors?
6) Do you adjust color schemes for proper contrast for every graph?
7) Can you explain the definitional and stylistic differences between a vertical bar chart and a histogram?
8) Do you know about different "bucketing" algorithms for histograms?
9) Do you apply the principles of usability to graphs?