Debates
26 May 07
29 May 07
Originally posted by StarValleyWyIn terms of history, most people learn math to a level that was well-understood in the 1700's (OK, some don't get past Archimedes, but hey). If you study statistics, that's a relatively newer field -- 1800 to early 1900's.
I was just watching a piece on CBS Evening news. It was about elementary school children and Math being taught in "exciting new ways".
At the end of the piece the leader of this brave new "close enough" fuzzy math made the statement : "We really can't spend our time and resources teaching these kids the old way of doing math. We have to prepare them ...[text shortened]... with an answer what our children need to succeed in the "new jobs" of the future?
There are exceptions of course, but in general, nobody but professional mathematicians and related scientists understand mathematical discoveries since WWI.
I don't know what "new methods" you are talking about, but as Euclid once informed King Ptolemy, there is no "royal road" to geometry.