The key line is probably Disclosure: I squeaked by in calculus while never really grasping it, and can no longer help my ninth-grade daughter solve equations with two variables. The toughest math I tackle now is calculating a tip in a moving taxi. This is quite typical: if you ask different people, the main variation is in what class they became disoriented and turned off. I think that mathematics as taught in US schools is for the most part so denatured that most people never internalize it and never use much of it --- actually most people can't calculate a tip. It's a deep problem--- I think we loose a lot by having misguided teaching of mathematics---but it's a shallow article. Bill On Dec 12, 2004, at 4:49 PM, Daniel Asimov wrote:
Here's the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/weekinreview/12mcne.html; it's valid through most of next Saturday, Dec. 18. (Note: If they make you divulge your e-address and choose a userid, I can assure you from almost 10 years' experience that -- unless you opt in for receiving various e-mails from the Times -- you won't get any e-mail from them or anyone else as a result of registering.) I'm curious what people's reactions are to this opinion piece. --Dan Asimov
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