[SpaceBar]

I agree about the poor quality of modern textbooks. That said, the article unintentionally underscores the difference between high school algebra as it is taught, and the real McCoy abstract algebra. The former being a tedious collection of rote methods for doing things you feel may or may not have any practical value. The latter being one of the most beautiful and intellectually satisfying subjects in the pure sciences. Mathematics is really all about patterns. Not the tedious manipulations, but why they work, and how they show the hand of God is on everything, even lowly numbers.

[Reily]

like Ramanujan said, ‘ I study Mathematics to know the mind of God.’

Ramanujan now there's a story !
Everyone go get the book ‘Ramanujan: The Man Who Knew Infinity”.

Almost completely self-taught!

[bboop]

I love Algebra, too - it is beautiful patterns, amazing concepts, satisfying relationships. The textbooks are bad, though - what 8th grader needs to know OR understand “If a sparrow flies over Mt. Everest with a twig weighing 2 oz and a headwind of 6 kpm” (always metric, because the libs REALLY want us to be like Europe). They can handle plenty of rote as the learn it and not every single problem absolutely HAS to be applied Physics, imho.