A Mathematician's Lament

[jrtom]

http://www.metafilter.com/70699/A-Mathematicians-Lament

Haven't read it yet (placeholder) but it looks interesting. (And I agree that mathematics is often taught poorly, e.g., the curricula are generally structured so that unless you go to a lot of trouble (i.e., take math in college) you get the impression that math is limited to arithmetic, geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and calculus..._none_ of which are what I spend most of my time doing when I'm doing mathematics. Probability and statistics? Graph theory? Combinatorics? Algorithm design, analysis, and optimization? Yes, some of these require some bits of the others as prerequisites...but seriously, let's at least give HS students a _taste_ of what else is out there.)

Comments

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

I suspect that there are probably a fair number of kids these days--these days in particular--that would be easily motivated to learn about compound interest (and related topics such as variable interest rates). Such as some of the kids whose parents have recently had to move their families out of the houses that they couldn't afford any more. *rueful smile*