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I took some high/junior-high school in Libya: we learned set theory in grade 7. I liked math back then. It's not that I understood the point of what we were lea

by hasenj 16y ago

I took some high/junior-high school in Libya: we learned set theory in grade 7. I liked math back then. It's not that I understood the point of what we were learning, but it was interesting; it was fun to ponder how to calculate the ratio of the circle's circumference relative to its diameter, and to think about how to prove the Pythagorean theorem. Then I came to Canada and took more HS, suddenly math was a pile of confusing "things"; an enumeration of techniques for solving certain patterns of problems. Around that time I realized that I hated math. In University we took discrete algebra with a Taiwanese prof, suddenly math was fun again. If I remember correctly, he commented once about how they learned this stuff in high school when he was back home, which wasn't very surprising, seeing as how the first half of course was pretty similar to my grade 7 math in Libya. As far as I can tell (and I could very well be wrong), the Libyan curriculum was based on the Egyptian curriculum, which is possibly based on the British one. At least it was based on it sometime around 50 years ago.

tokenadult 16y ago
we learned set theory in grade 7. . . . As far as I can tell . . . , the Libyan curriculum was based on the Egyptian curriculum, which is possibly based on the British one. At least it was based on it sometime around 50 years ago. Set theory in seventh grade would be characteristic of the "new math" curriculum. That was taken up by quite a few schools in Britain and in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s, so fifty years ago is about right. http://books.google.com/books?id=RVY_aIlezpAC&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=school+mathematics+project+United+Kingdom+history&source=bl&ots=WsvmU5uXJ_&sig=2yHgHVFiNjqfCo5jvgeH3_S1ggg&hl=en&ei=Gzq0Ta3GAq230QGOkaX7CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=RVY_aIlezpAC&pg=PA60&#3... http://www.maa.org/spotlight/smsg.html http://www.maa.org/spotlight/smsg.html I liked that aspect of the "new math," which I had, pretty well, learning about set theory early and often, but I found that many of my teachers struggled to teach according to that curriculum, which didn't match their own education in math. The teachers being uncomfortable with the curriculum, and parents of pupils in that era not being sure how to help their children with homework, were among the drawback that resulted in "new math" curricula being replaced with "back to basics" curricula by the 1980s.

by hasenj 16y ago

tokenadult 16y ago

we learned set theory in grade 7. . . . As far as I can tell . . . , the Libyan curriculum was based on the Egyptian curriculum, which is possibly based on the British one. At least it was based on it sometime around 50 years ago. Set theory in seventh grade would be characteristic of the "new math" curriculum. That was taken up by quite a few schools in Britain and in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s, so fifty years ago is about right. http://books.google.com/books?id=RVY_aIlezpAC&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=school+mathematics+project+United+Kingdom+history&source=bl&ots=WsvmU5uXJ_&sig=2yHgHVFiNjqfCo5jvgeH3_S1ggg&hl=en&ei=Gzq0Ta3GAq230QGOkaX7CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=RVY_aIlezpAC&pg=PA60&#3... http://www.maa.org/spotlight/smsg.html http://www.maa.org/spotlight/smsg.html I liked that aspect of the "new math," which I had, pretty well, learning about set theory early and often, but I found that many of my teachers struggled to teach according to that curriculum, which didn't match their own education in math. The teachers being uncomfortable with the curriculum, and parents of pupils in that era not being sure how to help their children with homework, were among the drawback that resulted in "new math" curricula being replaced with "back to basics" curricula by the 1980s.