Re: Explaining the foundations of math

From: William Elliot (marsh_at_privacy.net)
Date: 08/31/04 

Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 03:06:57 -0700

From: Will Twentyman <wtwentyman@read.my.sig>
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Explaining the foundations of math

>William Elliot wrote:
>> On Mon, 30 Aug 2004, Will Twentyman wrote:
>>
>>>When I was in an honors section of Calc I in college, our professor
>>>made us write a paper explaining how the definition of the limit
>>>corresponds to the intuitive notion of a limit. Realizing that
>>>this class was about 50% math majors, it took most of us 3-4 tries
>>>before we generated a version that he considered acceptable. If
>>>this is a particularly difficult concept to internalize for math
>>>majors, I suspect it is even more difficult for non-math major,
>>>non-honor students to absorb.
>>
>>>I suspect some of the authors have realized this, and decided that
>>>the students efforts are better directed at being able to *do*
>>>calculus rather than being able to understand a somewhat obscure
>>>looking definition.
>
>> Sigh, more watering down of education.
>
>>>I'm not saying that decision is correct, just that they are
>>>removing a barrier to being able to do calculus that appears to be
>>>unimportant for many students.
>
>> Just wait until they have to hassle with metric spaces, spaces with
>>> norms, modern analysis or topology. They'll founder and flop.
>
>> Not an approach at all helpful for math majors, graduate physics
>> majors.

>Agreed. I find it interesting that in the 50's the US was near the
>top of the curve in quality of education. Now that we've started
>worrying about social issues in the schools, we're plummeting fast.

Sigh. Soon we'll see US plummeting scientifically.

Illiterate kids graduated from grade school, colleges having to teach
remedial (ie basic high school level) stuff to high school graduates.
Argg!

>When we're more worried about students' feelings and self-image than
>whether they are competent, is it any surprise that many are happily
>ignorant?

Ignorance is bliss, thus also corporate media censorship
of news and alas, even corporate censorship of science.

Big Brother doesn't want students who can think for themselves.

Big Brother Bush will not publicly thank little Brother Jeb
for corrupt Florida elections, neither for 2000 nor for 2004.
It'd give thinking students the false notion that election fraud
        can and has happen to US.

But less I stray too far off topic, what are they doing in grade
school, are they still teaching numbers, ie arithmetic? Or are
youngsters spared such demeaning demoralization by being taught
to use hand calculators instead?

These days community colleges are promoting and emphasizing use of
graphic calculators as algebra. Does this forebode of yet more
mathematical incompetence?

-- the Dummy Down Dunce Dance
Forlorn am I to scorn
        the land wherein I'm born
whence creativity is shorn
        to fit some standard norm 

----

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