
Mathematician's Lament: An essay on math education and on how we view math - volodia
http://scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=410
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catherinej
Excerpt from Paul Lockart's _Lament_:

"At no time are students let in on the secret that mathematics, like any
literature, is created by human beings for their own amusement; that works of
mathematics are subject to critical appraisal; that one can have and develop
mathematical taste. A piece of mathematics is like a poem, and we can ask if
it satisfies our aesthetic criteria: Is this argument sound? Does it make
sense? Is it simple and elegant? Does it get me closer to the heart of the
matter?"

I remember once in some math class at Berkeley doing a sloppy rush job on a
proof assigned as an exercise. The TA grading the assignment gave me credit,
but wrote: "Isn't this using an H-bomb to kill a fly?" I was embarrassed, but
also kind of glad to know that elegance (or lack thereof) did matter.

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rkowalick
I have friend who had something similar written on an algebra assignment
because he used Zorn's Lemma when it wasn't needed.

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Eliezer
"Math" is the activity you perform when you don't know what to do next. If you
already know what to do next, it's arithmetic.

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lr
This is the comment I just left on the blog:

I will have to read the paper in more detail, but I have an extremely simple
reason why math education in the US is so hard: We use the English system of
measurement. Most students in grade school associate math with this horrific
measurement system, and once that happens, there is almost no chance to engage
students in what math is really all about.

You want people in the US to embrace math? Then start on a campaign to scrap
our horrific measurement system, a system to which logic and simple math can
not be applied. In the metric system all you need to know is it is base 10.
With the English system you must _know_ that there are 12 inches in a foot,
and that there are 3 feet in a yard. How many feet in a mile? There is NO WAY
to logically derive this information, one must KNOW it! How may teaspoons in a
tablespoon? Can math help us with that? Nope, one must know the answer.

Sorry, I hope I am not ranting, but this has been a burr in my side for years.
Yet it seems that no one ever talks about this aspect when talking about why
people in the US are so adverse to math. I guess I should just write my own
article about it…

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philwelch
The problem is that 10 is not an especially divisible number. It only divides
evenly by 2 and 5. English measurements have lots of 12's and 60's and so
forth not out of malice, but so we can precisely determine what 1/3 or 1/4 of
a foot is without using decimals.

Likewise, Fahrenheit temperatures are perfect for weather since the 0-100
scale consistently matches the spectrum from "especially cold day" to
"especially hot day".

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timwiseman
And this was of great value when decimal notation was unknown in Europe and
even retained some value when it was known only by a select few elite. Now
most people are as (or more, especially when equipped with a calculator) using
decimal notation as they are dealing with fractions.

Now that the decimal system predominates the metric system is generally easier
to use, once you get used to it. Moreover, it will bring us into line with
virtually all of the rest of the world which simplifies international
communications, not to mention that most technical/scientific work is done in
the metric system anyway. This means that most school children are burdened
with learning 2 separate systems of measurement and their conversions for very
little reason now.

While this is completely off topic from the main article, I think that overall
America would be best served by the metric system.

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philwelch
You're probably right, at least for most things. But justifying the English
system is still worthwhile, if only to better understand its rationale in the
first place.

I still maintain that Fahrenheit is an exceptionally good temperature scale
for weather, though. It's beautifully simple.

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splat
Link to the original article: <http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf>

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jcdreads
Every time I read this is causes me physical pain to think that I'd have to
take more than a 50% pay cut to become a math teacher. If only I were
independently wealthy...

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dhimes
We have issues with physics in our local high school. I've decided to apply
for the job. If I get it, I'll be scrambling to keep up the biz; but it's a
workload I feel I need to accept because we'll lose the kids if I don't.

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MartinMond
Thanks! That made me stop watching The Wire and continue working my way
through Practical Foundations of Mathematics.

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zimbabwe
Every single time this is posted I read it and it is still as good as I
remember. Thank you for reposting this, volodia.

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switchOver
The scenario at the beginning is real - at least in Germany

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kragen
Nobody in Germany listens to or plays music until grad school?

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switchOver
Well, in some elementary schools you may learn to play a bit of the flute -
Also we sang sometimes but the focus was clearly on music theory and music
history.

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kragen
Right, but there's radio stations and street musicians and concerts and stuff,
right?

