Heidi and I definitely need to meet!

I like that, “diving.” Suggests something about how the web can just suck you in (instead of lifting you above everything). Glad some of us (like yourself) have the lung power to dive deep, and the swimmin’ skills to come up for air at will.

ah, but higher math is another story. as one historian put it: the most important task confronting mathematicians would therefore seem to be the construction of a satisfactory theory of the infinite. what is infinity after all? is it something really really big? or something really really really small?or, as bertrand russell has written about high-school math: in the beginning of algebra, even the most intelligent child finds, as a rule, very great difficulty. the use of letters is a mystery, which seems to have no purpose except mystification. it is almost impossible, at first, not to think that every letter stands for some particular number, if only the teacher would reveal <>what<> number it stands for. the fact is, that in algebra the mind is first taught to consider general truths, truths which are not asserted to hold only of this or that particular thing, but of any one of a whole group of things. it is in the power of understanding and discovering such truths that the mastery of the intellect over the whole world of things actual and possible resides; and ability to deal with the general as such is one of the gifts that a mathematical education should bestow.the key, as asserted by david foster wallace in his wonderful-but-challenging book “everything and more: a compact history of infinity” (from which all of the above quotes are taken), is finding a way to make the math beautiful…

And so are these thoughts beautiful. Thank you for commenting in this way.I do find– as I know my friends mentioned here do– math to be beautiful. Perhaps they and I need to read Wallace’s book….Who Are You?I happily admit to finding real delight in imaginary numbers. When I made their acquaintance in high school (when was it?), I couldn’t get over their existence. What a splendid idea! Yes, perhaps I’ll post something on that subject someday. You’ve got me thinking….

as for who i am (poster of wallace), perhaps you’ll recognize me from this:Some are summer’ssons: fervid,Fired, love-Inspired, never tired.Wintry ones haveweary walks, seldomTalk – dullas stones, as bareAs bones. Some areSpring: bright and beaming,greenly leafing, whollyGrowing, goodness showing.Men of Seasons – all of these. No man for all am I –I am autumn – I Flame and freeze; I’m allergies;I change my leavesby slight degrees:Chromatic tohueless. Often I’mClueless . . . weathered, orNot. Climate –Bleak. Prone to speak.Slowto act – Spring’s loveI lack. I’m notquite incurable, butSubtly durable – a sleepytree – that’s Me…(11/4/91)

We probably all agree that solving for “x” isn’t a provocative experience. However, as you stated earlier, neither is trying to use clunky vocabulary words in a sentence or pointing out the dangling participle. Yet, in both cases it is a necessary experience to graduate to the level where Shakespeare IS funny, or math IS about things that matter. Math matters to meteorologists determining the path of a hurricane, or to inventors of the defibrillator, the statistician determining the sources of global warming . . . well, you get the point. It’s the application of knowledge that creates the insatiable desire to know and understand more about literature or math. I first became intrigued with math and science when I saw Sally Ride orbit the earth. How far can we go? How vast is God’s creation? Where do we fit in this universe? These are questions that can also invoke a student to “consider themselves, their culture their perspective on things, and their perspective on things in a whole new light.”Best of luck with your curriculum planning!

I do NOT agree that solving for x is not provocative. I mean, as Heidi said, it’s a variable. A VARIABLE!!! How many variables are there in English? When Shakespeare writes “What light from yonder window breaks” might we have figured out that the correct answer is “Rosamund?” No, it’s Juliet, and he comes out and tells us, and it’s ALWAYS Juliet, never Rosamund. What’s interesting about that?whs2

I don’t think I’m communicating effectively. Not provocative would be something that doesn’t stimulate you. So, solving for x isn’t stimulating, hence NOT provocative.Something that is provocative would be fascinating and exciting, like the application of knowledge.

When one teaches literature to a group predisposed to be disinterested, or to a group without confidence in their abilities as readers/interpreters, or to a group for whom the particular text is a little beyond their reach, at least initially… one often must begin with the deep stuff and progress to the text. One might preceed a reading of OEDIPUS REX with a group of readers who might find it difficult by having a conversation about fate, destiny, choice, circumstances… One might begin a study of A DOLL’S HOUSE with a discussion about gender and societal expectations… These discussions of the deep stuff that are relevant and accessible to everyone are keys for these readers to become engaged and to care about the texts. I have witnessed math instructors who do the same thing. They begin with the application before they ask the learners to approach the math task to be tackled. When they introduce a real life problem that is interesting to the students, a real life reason why they would care what “X” equals, the students can approach learning to do math with more interest and energy. My calculus class was like this. We began with the word problems and worked our way to learning to do the math. Each word problem/project was culminated with a paper that explained the problem at hand, and the issues associated with it, and how we worked through the math and other real-life stuff to arrive at our answers. Those of us who were good at regular math found this type of math class a pain at first, but the students who disliked math found this way helped them to love, or at least value, math. They preferred the real problem to “Trust me; you’ll use this one day.” It definitely took more prep work on the math teacher’s part though.