recently bought the "Lament of a mathematician / Mathematician's Lament" by Paul Lockhart. I had already read online (and in fact I've written about this in the blog ... stupid and boring.)
As a mathematician and having been since the aim of disseminating mathematics, always look for inspiration this cause. And many are in the little book of Lockhart. The part I want to write is the following ...
worst of the "reform" education in mathematics
are attempts to make mathematics is "interesting"
and "important in life" for children.
NO NEED TO DO THE MATH TO BE INTERESTING
AND IS MORE INTERESTING THAN YOU CAN HANDLE!
And his glory is precisely that appears to be relevant in our lives.
That is funny.
Lockhart not talking about the mathematics being taught in school , but the real math. But ... what I'm thinking is this:
What are interesting things for a child or young?
The more I think about it the more I realize the truth of the words of Lockhart. For children and young people the most interesting is not relevant to life. Music, soccer, cartoons, video games, jokes, comedy, science fiction, ...
... even for adults, the most interesting is not always the most "important" in life.
... even for adults, the most interesting is not always the most "important" in life.
Mathematics is a useful fiction. Hartry Field
"The product of the ages of John and Peter is equivalent to his age José 3 years ago when the sum of the ages ...." For God's sake, pretend that speak of ages make the problem interesting or on the real world?
As real problem is absurd and silly. Any child asks when it will help me know how this nonsense?
simple and interesting questions (and I do frequently with my children) is as follows:
Find two numbers multiplied to give 42.
.
Find two numbers that multiplied to give 13.
.
These questions are interesting in themselves for children (no question, I have evidence that they are interesting from experience). Let them discover that mistake ... and 15 minutes are very clear what a prime number.
do not care if the primes are used to code and make transfers paswords Interbank safe. And if there is a whole area cryptography (see for example: RSA) related to these issues. It is also interesting, but it comes later.
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