On: Kill Math

[hammock]

I doubt anyone here learned math (at least up through calculus) without concrete examples. They were called word problems and lab assignments.

[hessenwolf → hammock]

I'll be honest; I absolute love graph theory. If I had a million lives and financial independence, I would spend several of them solving graph theory problems. I don't really give a shit what the nodes and edges are. Computer network? Rigid structure? Conditional independence of personality traits? I don't care!

[generalk → hammock]

Word problems are still abstract manipulation of symbols, you just have to hunt around in the phrasing for the right operands or operations, which arguably makes it harder.

[fhars → hammock]

But the jury is still out on the question of whether concrete examples are usefull in maths education: http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/mathed.htm

[hessenwolf → fhars]

Weak study.

They made some students learn something using concrete examples only, and then expected them to be able to abstract. That's just dumb.

I learn the maths, and apply to various situations in my head to make sure I understand it.