Passion-Driven Statistics

Abstract

As Meng (2009) made clear, one of the statistics profession’s responsibilities is to be “the first quantitative trainers of future generations of scientists, engineers, policy makers, etc.” (not just statisticians). Evidence suggests we have not met this challenge. In fact, our traditional Stat101 courses and texts can poison the statistical well for the people who become our potential sponsors and collaborators. We need to do more than teach ‘methods.’ We need to show from the first day and throughout the Stat101 experience that our methods exist to help people learn interesting things about issues and topics they are passionate about. This message pertains to the rising generations of professionals and the citizenry at large and it applies to statisticians. Getting the message across may require radically redesigned ‘service courses’ and a new generation of uber-teachers as Meng (2009) advocated. In the meantime we should use existing materials in ways that show how subject-matter passion can motivate statistical analyses that reveal interesting and important subject-matter insights. As we develop new texts and other materials we need better quality control by authors, editors, and reviewers to assure that our teaching supports our “first quantitative trainer” responsibility.