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So basically what he is saying is that drilling kids into memorizing math procedures like LONG DIVISION is not a good way to get people interested in math and a
by ivan_ah 14y ago
So basically what he is saying is that drilling kids into memorizing math procedures like LONG DIVISION is not a good way to get people interested in math and analytical thinking in general. Ok. Sure. He is right that modelling is probably what "people who don't get math" struggle the most with.
But saying that math is just "computational stuff, turn the crank, let the computer do it" kind of thing is ludicrous. You can use mathematics as a blackbox model to do cool demos and stuff, but at some point you //have// to open the box and see how it is done.
It just happens that the standard math curriculum (numbers, functions, sin, cos, etc.) is a very good mix of conceptual complexity and computational complexity that can all be understood with pen and paper. You won't need to trust anyone, the proof is right there on the sheet. Anyone trying to take that understand in order to replace with with a SolveEquation[.] is not on the right side of intellectualism. Demos yes, but view source (is there view source for Mathematica functions?) and explain source are //sine qua non// for deep knowledge.