I had a class in college about the history of the atomic bomb. Our text book was Rhodes, and most of the stuff we learned about was the different competing theories of atoms, the experimental methods & math used to distinguish between them, math behind atomic chain reactions, and the scientists who did those things. It was great! Our tests were basically physics tests.
I’d like more history like that, and I’d like marginal movements in that direction in math class. For example, something like Radical Real Analysis but for everything.
Obviously schools won’t do this well, but they won’t do anything well. Any change they make nowadays will be oriented toward making the least common denominator happy, if I understand the current fad among teachers nowadays.
The much more interesting question is how could this be done well, and the more useful is why the current fad & how can it be changed, so saying something like “teach more history in math!” can be expected to go well.
I had a class in college about the history of the atomic bomb. Our text book was Rhodes, and most of the stuff we learned about was the different competing theories of atoms, the experimental methods & math used to distinguish between them, math behind atomic chain reactions, and the scientists who did those things. It was great! Our tests were basically physics tests.
I’d like more history like that, and I’d like marginal movements in that direction in math class. For example, something like Radical Real Analysis but for everything.
Obviously schools won’t do this well, but they won’t do anything well. Any change they make nowadays will be oriented toward making the least common denominator happy, if I understand the current fad among teachers nowadays.
The much more interesting question is how could this be done well, and the more useful is why the current fad & how can it be changed, so saying something like “teach more history in math!” can be expected to go well.