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That's great that you consider this. Many do not consider poetry, music, art classes worthwhile because they consider those classes impractical. I don't agree
by yequalsx 17y ago
That's great that you consider this. Many do not consider poetry, music, art classes worthwhile because they consider those classes impractical.
I don't agree that learning how to abstractly apply rules and manipulate objects is useless. It's particularly important in programming, for instance.
- nitrogen 17y agoI think the other poster was suggesting that students will perceive abstract symbolic manipulation as useless unless they're taught why it isn't useless, probably via application problems. Considering that the majority of students will never have a genuine interest in math for its own sake, I think that textbooks and curricula designed for public education should include high doses of application problems, with enough theoretical problems to interest the true mathematicians and verify the students' understanding of the abstract concepts.