Almost 30 years ago, something happened that made introductory statistics harder to teach. Students didn’t suddenly become less teachable, nor did professors forget their craft. It was that we began to switch from teaching statistics as a mathematics course to teaching the art and craft of statistics as its own discipline. When statistics was viewed as a subspecialty of mathematics, students were taught to manipulate formulas and calculate the ‘correct’ answer to rote exercises. Life for the teacher, both as instructor and grader, was easy. read more