3 ms·

I’m speaking from the perspective of the U.S. I still contend though that the vast majority of people ages 12 - 18 are incapable of learning this book. Note t

I’m speaking from the perspective of the U.S. I still contend though that the vast majority of people ages 12 - 18 are incapable of learning this book. Note that I’m talking about this book as it is in it’s totality. This book includes counting principles in it so one can always claim that aspects of this book can be taught to people between ages of 12 - 18. We do teach people how to count at a young age. The subject matter is such that one can introduce concepts from this book in grades 7 - 12 but not at the depth the book covers them. Calculus is taught in most high schools in the U.S. but very few students take calculus in high school.

defrost 1y ago
> the vast majority of people ages 12 - 18 are incapable of learning this book. Sure. That doesn't prevent it being a high school text taught in some high school streams though. Math I was taught to bulk of upper school students in Australia (in years 11 and 12), Math II/III was taught to those students interested in STEM at a university, Math IV was remedial math to bolster the poorer math students that didn't exactly pick up primary school math. Again, it's similar in depth to how I was taught math in high school and how my peers were taught in high school, but I guess we were more math orientated than others. * What makes it not a high school text (for advanced high school students here) is length rather than depth, while a breadth of math subjects were introduced along with concepts such as proof, reasoning, various notations, etc it was uncommon for a single subject such as discrete mathematics to be dealt with at great length, perhaps a third of the material presented here at a similar depth would be more common (again, for some high school students, not all high school students). * eg: https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/j.gauntlett https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/j.gauntlett , https://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/tschmah/ https://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/tschmah/ , https://hpi.uq.edu.au/profile/388/dominic-hyde https://hpi.uq.edu.au/profile/388/dominic-hyde are three of the people in my very small (12 in total) first year university math class who all had texts not disimilar to this in their senior math streams at their various high schools at the same time I attended high school. The entire group of twelve are not dissimilar.
- redczar 1y ago
  Length + depth determines the appropriateness of a book at a given level. They go hand in hand and my comment was about this book. Not 1 or 2 chapters of it and not 1 or 2 chapters of it dumbed down a bit.
  - defrost 1y ago
    Again, while part of the book might be presented in a high school courses I took, a number of students that took such courses would read the entire book out of interest. I'm unsure how you were taught but we in Australia frequently had textbooks that were only partially taught in high school, leaving the rest as untested and for interest. This, as I'm sure you follow, means it would be fine as a text book despite only part of the text being taught. Many of my peers were recommended a list of texts to read in high school that were never fomally taught in high school. A couple of people that were in our circle at that time read such things before high school.
    - redczar 1y ago
      It is quite obvious that you have not taught mathematics at a non specialized high school. You think the experience you and 3 other people each of whom got a Ph.D. at a good university in science and/or philosophy is somehow normative. You think this book could be taught to 15 year olds to anything more than a very small number of people is insane. Please go spend time in a classroom as a mathematics teacher before asserting such things. You might be right but your evidence is lacking. You clearly have no idea about the state of things in the average high school. EDIT: My wife is a physician who dropped out of high school. There are people who think that because she did it this proves that more than an extremely small number of such people could become physicians. They are wrong. She got lucky and the vast majority of high school dropouts can’t become physicians. People think that their experience going through high is indicative of what it is like on average and they advocate for positions based on their experience. It’s the “I did it therefore you can too” fallacy. You found 12 people who could learn this book in high school. You found them in university. They didn’t all go to the same high school. Each high school has very, very few students who could understand this book. High schools don’t have the resources to teach a class for just 2 or 3 students.

defrost 1y ago

> the vast majority of people ages 12 - 18 are incapable of learning this book. Sure. That doesn't prevent it being a high school text taught in some high school streams though. Math I was taught to bulk of upper school students in Australia (in years 11 and 12), Math II/III was taught to those students interested in STEM at a university, Math IV was remedial math to bolster the poorer math students that didn't exactly pick up primary school math. Again, it's similar in depth to how I was taught math in high school and how my peers were taught in high school, but I guess we were more math orientated than others. * What makes it not a high school text (for advanced high school students here) is length rather than depth, while a breadth of math subjects were introduced along with concepts such as proof, reasoning, various notations, etc it was uncommon for a single subject such as discrete mathematics to be dealt with at great length, perhaps a third of the material presented here at a similar depth would be more common (again, for some high school students, not all high school students). * eg: https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/j.gauntlett https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/j.gauntlett , https://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/tschmah/ https://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/tschmah/ , https://hpi.uq.edu.au/profile/388/dominic-hyde https://hpi.uq.edu.au/profile/388/dominic-hyde are three of the people in my very small (12 in total) first year university math class who all had texts not disimilar to this in their senior math streams at their various high schools at the same time I attended high school. The entire group of twelve are not dissimilar.

redczar 1y ago
Length + depth determines the appropriateness of a book at a given level. They go hand in hand and my comment was about this book. Not 1 or 2 chapters of it and not 1 or 2 chapters of it dumbed down a bit.
- defrost 1y ago
  Again, while part of the book might be presented in a high school courses I took, a number of students that took such courses would read the entire book out of interest. I'm unsure how you were taught but we in Australia frequently had textbooks that were only partially taught in high school, leaving the rest as untested and for interest. This, as I'm sure you follow, means it would be fine as a text book despite only part of the text being taught. Many of my peers were recommended a list of texts to read in high school that were never fomally taught in high school. A couple of people that were in our circle at that time read such things before high school.
  - redczar 1y ago
    It is quite obvious that you have not taught mathematics at a non specialized high school. You think the experience you and 3 other people each of whom got a Ph.D. at a good university in science and/or philosophy is somehow normative. You think this book could be taught to 15 year olds to anything more than a very small number of people is insane. Please go spend time in a classroom as a mathematics teacher before asserting such things. You might be right but your evidence is lacking. You clearly have no idea about the state of things in the average high school. EDIT: My wife is a physician who dropped out of high school. There are people who think that because she did it this proves that more than an extremely small number of such people could become physicians. They are wrong. She got lucky and the vast majority of high school dropouts can’t become physicians. People think that their experience going through high is indicative of what it is like on average and they advocate for positions based on their experience. It’s the “I did it therefore you can too” fallacy. You found 12 people who could learn this book in high school. You found them in university. They didn’t all go to the same high school. Each high school has very, very few students who could understand this book. High schools don’t have the resources to teach a class for just 2 or 3 students.