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Did they make these changes to make room for this course? I know there's long been a movement to change priorities in math education to better meet modern needs

• kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
  > change priorities in math education to better meet modern needs. Would those be the needs of the Eloi? Math remains the underpinning of everything that enhances life in the modern world. Blissfully regarding it with disdain doesn't change that.
  • mkr-hn 5y ago
    Did you reply to the wrong post? My post doesn't regard math as a whole one way or the other, blissfully or otherwise. I have no idea what Eloi is.
    • rvbissell 5y ago
      Eloi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine
• tablespoon 5y ago
  > Did they make these changes to make room for this course? I know there's long been a movement to change priorities in math education to better meet modern needs. Define "modern needs." My understanding is that American math education has long been affected by a tug-of-war between... 1) people (usually focused on K-12 education) who want to dumb it down to meet the needs of "modern day to day life" (e.g. algebra isn't important because common people don't use it every day), and... 2) people (usually focused on post K-12 activities at elite levels), who want to make it rigorous, because strong math skills are fundamental for high-level achievement in engineering and science. In America, #1 seems to be the dominant outlook unless there's some national competitive threat (e.g. the Soviets beating the US in the space race).