Re: pointers?

Jean-François Michaud wrote:
John Doty wrote:

Jean-François Michaud wrote:


[snip]



It's "deja vu all over again". In the US we had a crazy educational
theory called the "New Math" that was supposed to improve students'
understanding by starting them out with abstract "fundamentals". It was
a disaster, producing a generation of students who often found division
impossible without a calculator. The problem is that only in
mathematicians' fantasies does understanding of math procede from the
abstract to the concrete: in real life mathematical understanding
involves learning from concrete behavior and then modeling it with
abstractions.


This stems from a misunderstanding of how intelligence works. It is sad
to see that the very people on who we rely to teach our kids don't
understand very fundamental concepts of paramount importance
themselves. It is quite silly to magically expect young minds to grasp
complex invariants when the basic ones haven't yet sunken in the
cortex.

I think this misrepresents what really happened: it wasn't the teachers
who created this mess, it was politicians and mathematicians.


I'm sorry if I didn't separate the concepts further, I wrote the
message a little bit in a hurry this morning.

Teachers have the DUTY to teach what is right, not what they are being
told to teach.

Irreparable damage was done to individuals because of the incompetence
of many and the non-will to do what is right as opposed to what is
commanded. This is actually an ongoing process and it a very sad thing
to watch.

The job of teaching is the most important job there is and it HAS to be
done right. For the sake of individuals. The consequences of not doing
this are absolutely out of proportion and of tremendously far reaching
importance.


After the launch of Sputnik, there was a bit of panic in the US, and
part of it involved education. There was a belief that American kids
were falling behind in math and science, so there was a national push to
improve teaching standards that included getting scientists and
mathematicians involved in curriculum development. The result for math
was based in formalist ideology rather than real world practice.
Teachers understood this, but were commanded to teach it anyway.


None of those teachers deserve to teach.

Come down off your high horse. Teachers have rent to pay and children to feed. Who benefits if they get themselves fired for not following the curriculum? Certainly not the students they can no longer teach.

Jerry
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
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