Re: unnatural languages

"Herman" == Herman Rubin <hrubin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Herman> Children are capable of learning precise abstract
Herman> concepts. The earliest use of this was when the Greeks
Herman> axiomatized geometry, so that it could all be derived from
Herman> a few postulates; not all were made explicit, but it was
Herman> no longer necessary to memorize all the geometric facts.
Herman> The earlies use of this in the rest of mathematics came in
Herman> the 19th century, and these can also be taught to
Herman> children, but apparently not to their teachers.

Well... How abstract is geometry? You can draw those things out and
visualize the concepts easily.

If you want something abstract, you'd better try algebra (or co-geom
-- the hybrid of geometry and algebra). Teach a young child to solve
a system of 2 linear equestions in 2 variables. I guess you'll have
difficulty with this for children below 8.



Herman> We might not be able to make the initial learning easier,
Herman> but say from age three on, the structure can be rather
Herman> easily explained. Young children CAN be taught concepts,
Herman> especially if there are no outside forces acting against
Herman> the learning of them.

I agree. Even 3-years-olds can understand that grandpa is papa's
papa, for instance.


Herman> It might even be that children are trying to find
Herman> structure, even where it is not present.

Like go -> goed?



--
Lee Sau Dan 李守敦 ~{@nJX6X~}

E-mail: danlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee
.

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