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- From: hrubin@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
- Newsgroups: sci.math
- Subject: Re: Mattel says "Math is tough."
- Summary: Math is not the only thing taught badly
- Message-ID: <Bvs1AK.J2G@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
- Date: 8 Oct 92 00:27:55 GMT
- References: <1992Oct7.005439.193@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> <Bvr62B.2BA@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <1992Oct7.150850.23195@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
- Organization: Purdue University Statistics Department
- Lines: 39
-
- In article <1992Oct7.150850.23195@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> crb7q@kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU (Cameron Randale Bass) writes:
- >In article <Bvr62B.2BA@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> hrubin@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:
-
- .........................
-
- >>Properly explained, and this is almost never done, the concepts are not
- >>all that difficult, although practice and application are necessary to
- >>really understand them. The notion of variable, possibly the most important
- >>in mathematics, is essentially the notion of pronoun. The notions of
- >>theorem and proof are extremely important, and not well taught; knowing
- >>these does not make one adept at producing them. It does not make one
- >>adept at using them, either, but that is of comparable difficulty to
- >>writing sentences and paragraphs, and is even similar to that.
-
- > Try teaching sentence and paragraph writing to a young child.
-
- > Judging by the results of former students, they often are not
- > taught well either.
-
- The level got changed in the discussion. I would teach the notion of
- variable to a young child and even expect to get it across. Theorem
- and proof would have to await a better understanding of language, and
- except for a really bright child, probably not before 9 or 10.
-
- But understanding the concepts corresponds to being able to RECOGNIZE
- a sentence or paragraph, not to produce them. A young child can
- certainly be taught to recognize a properly formed sentence; paragraphs
- are more vague. Teaching someone to produce a good sentence or
- paragraph or proof is teaching someone to be an artist; it cannot
- really be taught, just evoked. However, do not believe that the
- teachers teaching young children English know English grammar any
- more than those teaching young children mathematics know mathematical
- structure.
-
- --
- Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
- Phone: (317)494-6054
- hrubin@snap.stat.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet)
- {purdue,pur-ee}!snap.stat!hrubin(UUCP)
-