re: #81 Gus 802

From reading the article to which Malkin claims as her source, it seems pretty clear to me the idea behind the program is to try and engage the students in the entire math-learning process.

It must be near impossible to be a teacher these days… given that the students’ attention spans have been shortened and in their pockets they have iPods and other electronic devices just waiting to be played.

I did quite well in mathematics (and indeed, it was one of my majors), so it is not like I don’t understand the angst that mathematics causes, as I’ve tutored enough people in my life to see people struggle.

Just last week at the store I was observing two young (20-ish) women struggling to figure out how much 4 pounds of oranges at 98 cents/lb were going to cost them. It broke my heart.

The key to life is to not try to force what one can’t control (which is about 99.999%), I propose. Different humans have differing abilities and frankly not everyone will do well with mathematics, even the 4 simple operations performed on the real numbers which make up the great bulk of our daily contact with mathematics.

I would rather have a student learn that mathematics has a history, and that people have struggled with it during all of human existence, than for them to feel guilty because they can’t divide 180 by 9 in their head in under 2 seconds.