9-51
No other U Ideas
Summary: Students have to understand the purpose of math before they learn it.
Bonus: Two times!
Commentary: This is at least the second math essay (by different authors) I've read this month with a Hamlet reference. The he gets to Gulliver's Travels I've commented before about how it's so different to read this stuff from when the "canon" was a thing and everyone was expected to have a general foundation, as opposed to today where professors from different subjects openly scoff at each other, and students proudly avoid stepping out of their pet corner of their major as much as possible. (I'm sure there was some of that back then too, but it seems less dominant.) Likewise, the idea that you can figure out how to link math to weather to art, etc. as a student is very different from the modern, "you're an idiot who can barely read, shut up," that I got in college from most professors.
I agree with Northhead's thesis. I'm "good" at math, but damned if I wasn't lost for much of school, since it was basically presented as "Here's a list of formulas. No, we won't tell you which one goes with which problem. Now go fail the test, I can only give out 3 Bs this semester, and I'm saving them for the other section." I like the idea of moving from a physical concept (gravity, magnetism, the price of fish) to the equation, rather than the other way around.
Mathematics as a science commenced when first someone, probably a Greek, proved propositions about any things or about some things, without specification of definite particular things.
I dunno, it could've been a Mesopotamian or something.
Rating: 3/5 Put this (or something like it) at the beginning of math classes today.
I am thankful for having all this stuff explained to me.
Interesting. Shakespeare does pop up in unexpected places. @samanthabwriter from
ReplyDeleteBalancing Act
Trying to read but it must be my eyes, the white letters on the black background are not as clear as I'd like. Anyway, I agree that knowing what math does could be helpful in getting kids to learn it. I know one of my daughters decided she didn't need to know algebra because when would she use it. She did the basics, but soon forgot them. Right about now she says she could use algebra for some work budget thing she's doing.
ReplyDelete