[IAEP] food for thought...

[Sean Linton]

Perhaps recently the culture of mathematics education, at least since
Newton's *Principia *has been just that, *principles* handed down
a perceived hierarchy, from a *prince*. May be based on
genuinely useful descriptions and definitions, but as the Garfunkel article
in the NYTimes suggests not really reflective of the pan-archy in which we
find ourselves today, where many types of mathematical skill set need to be
acknowledged for our inter-networked society.

A better mathematics education might involve less "abstract reasoning", but
also generally less heralding by teachers of untestable *principles* to
students who are not yet equipped to decide for themselves. Let the children
decide in what way a mathematical concept is a useful description by
building implicitly ('abstract', 'reason', 'energy',  . . . concepts which
bind things together; *Ratio Legis*) from the ground up, *à* la Bronowski's
*The Ascent of Man *for example. Describe before you prescribe . . . or
ascribe to George Bush a *principle* of *punishing failure* to pass standard
tests?

Who or what was Math anyway that ¡ all the children in the world ! really
need to be doing his home work every night?

; D
XO
Sean


On 26 August 2011 09:19, Steve Thomas <sthomas1 at gosargon.com> wrote:

> Alan,
>
> Okay, I'll bite, I can see how you believe the "standard curriculum" is way
> off, but what part of their proposed solution do you disagree with and where
> do you see as the preferred paths?"
>
> In particular in the article they state "*Science and math were originally
> discovered together, and they are best learned together now." which I assume
> you agree with based on past writings.*
>
> I can see how you might disagree that learning Latin has no value (I have
> learned a lot from attempting to learn smalltalk).
>
> My fear in what the authors suggest is that the "real world" problems will
> be like what I saw in 1902 textbook Algebra Text by Milne<http://books.google.com/books?id=DhU4AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22William+James+Milne%22&hl=en&ei=27VWTvfzIqjd0QGLo6DRDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-preview-link&resnum=5&ved=0CEEQuwUwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false>
>   which I found in an ice cream shop on Cape Cod (I only go to the best
> ice cream shoppes ;)  The book was filled with "real world" problems (and
> little visualizations or age appropriate concrete tasks/objects kids could
> relate to) for ex:
> [image:
> books?id=DhU4AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA356&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U1k1CWXvlkhypODoZuTWebG14bH1Q&ci=93%2C458%2C873%2C105&edge=0]
>
> I look forward to your response, the destruction of my existing beliefs and
> being freed to learn :)
>
> Stephen
>
> On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 4:38 PM, Alan Kay <alan.nemo at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Walter
>>
>> As with a number of other issues in education, I strongly disagree with
>> both of the main opposing sides. Both the standard curriculum, and these
>> guys, are way off IMO.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Alan
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>
>> *To:* iaep <iaep at lists.sugarlabs.org>
>> *Sent:* Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:47 AM
>> *Subject:* [IAEP] food for thought...
>>
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/opinion/how-to-fix-our-math-education.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
>>
>> -walter
>>
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>
>>
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>
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