Reviews but no synopsis????
Reviewed/supported by Howard Gardner. Author/creator of the multiple intelligences movement? That Howard Gardner? That right there tells you all you need to know about the content of this book. Gardner is a loon.
Can’t hack math?
Here’s your participation trophy ...
Part of the original essay in the NY Times, 2012:
“....It’s true that students in Finland, South Korea and Canada score better on mathematics tests. But it’s their perseverance, not their classroom algebra, that fits them for demanding jobs.
Nor is it clear that the math we learn in the classroom has any relation to the quantitative reasoning we need on the job. John P. Smith III, an educational psychologist at Michigan State University who has studied math education, has found that “mathematical reasoning in workplaces differs markedly from the algorithms taught in school.” Even in jobs that rely on so-called STEM credentials — science, technology, engineering, math — considerable training occurs after hiring, including the kinds of computations that will be required. Toyota, for example, recently chose to locate a plant in a remote Mississippi county, even though its schools are far from stellar. It works with a nearby community college, which has tailored classes in “machine tool mathematics.”
That sort of collaboration has long undergirded German apprenticeship programs. I fully concur that high-tech knowledge is needed to sustain an advanced industrial economy. But we’re deluding ourselves if we believe the solution is largely academic....”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/is-algebra-necessary.html?_r=0
There’s not a human that ever lived that knew too much math. This is drivel.
Most people can get by with basic math (including fractions), along with statistics. The latter is necessary for business degrees as well.
Computer programming and architecture doesn't require advanced mathematics, either. What is needed in those disciplines is the ability to decompose a problem into steps that can solved with existing code or newly developed code.
Frankly, I think the attempt to teach advanced match is actually counter-productive, because too many people get frustrated by it and throw their hands up. They just think: "Math is too hard for me", when the real problem is they are focused on stuff they can't use.
Hacker's gotten people to talk about his work, though, so in that sense I guess he won.
That article is dehydrated rock hard stupid.
“Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable sub-human who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.”
- Lazarus Long
Though I do think, in this modern computer age, we should spend less time on calculus and make sure our kids learn some discrete math and linear algebra before they get out of high school.
Basic algebra, geometry & trig should be required for all students. They are not difficult if properly taught - learn the proper calculations to get the right answers rather than let the students make up their own methods to get the wrong answers. I might also include a basic course of “statistical thinking” - learning to look at the world the way a statistician does.
I think it bugs libtards that there is one subject in school that has absolute right answers and absolute best ways to get them. Their attempt to mind rape the kids by making it all gray instead of black and white is crippling American kids in math achievement.
Funny that, because of this, we likely need those foreign STEM students to come here, because our own kids have been deliberately made mathematically illiterate. Those responsible should be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.
Math makes you more intelligent as it fotces you to solve problems in so many areas and in so many different ways. It challenges you to think in new ways and involves understanding conceptual relationships.
To be clear: this is not Tom Lehrer in the video (he is in his 80's now). It's someone lip-syncing the song, with the "missing blackboard" beside him to illustrate. In the original recording, Lehrer was onstage, playing the piano and singing for a live audience.
For those of you not old enough to remember, this was a satirical take on how math was taught in US schools during a brief period in the 1960's, in the wake of Sputnik. It has been described as absolutely correct, but turning a relatively simple process into something that is very confusing for beginners. This teaching methodology has been all but abandoned, unless the student is pursuing an advanced math curricula, or another one that requires it.
The song was performed in the early 60's, but was recorded in 1965. I once played it for a friend that taught elementary math in an earlier career, and she was laughing so hard that she was practically in tears by the time it was finished.
I was in grade school during that period, and I was even able to use the ability to add/subtract numbers in other bases than 10 (8 and 16). Binary logic was useful in the years of assembly programming and small amount of digital system design that I did.
But, I remember how frustrating it was for many people, and altogether useless for people that didn't pursue computer hardware or software careers. Consequently, these subjects are still taught in schools, but in computer courses.