Dakota Gardener: What is ‘normal’? Communicating the variability found in nature

My friend Karen teaches college-prep math at our local high school. As a gift for her graduates this year, she bought them water bottles with printing that read, “English is important. Math is importanter.”

I laughed my head off.

Of course, she’s just poking a little fun at her colleagues in the language arts, while emphasizing her own field of expertise. But the wording raises a challenge I face ev…