1506 Denver, Math, Plans

Friday, October 12, 2007

PBS had a tribute to John Denver this evening. It reminded me of a reaction I had back in the very late 70s or early 80s, when John Denver was at the top of the charts with one song after another. I was driving, and there was a new John Denver song playing on the car radio, and then the announcer said "And that was Annie's Song by John Denver." Well, back then, car radios weren't all that good, and what I heard was "And that was any song by John Denver", and I laughed and thought, "oh, yes, they do all sound alike!"

Not to knock JD, I loved him, too, but hey, they DID all sound alike!

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If you have children in school, or know anyone who has children in school, you MUST watch this video. It's about 15.5 minutes long, but it's interesting, important, and frightening. The teaching of math is changing again, and not in a good way. As a former math teacher, this scares me!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI)

There have been several responses to the above video. At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOH9gwImyXg, a guy has timed the old algorithms against the new methods.

At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9skRrnN2_HU (Part 1) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1tPHInrEk0 (Part 2) a college professor attempts to defend the new against the old on the grounds that students must understand the concepts behind what they are doing, and must learn the logic, as opposed to simply memorizing the algorithms. However, he admits that he is unfamiliar with the new books and methods. He apparently doesn't realize that the new methods DON'T get one closer to the concepts. Taught correctly, the old algorithms should be backed by concepts. I can assure you MY students understood what they were doing!

Finally, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx5KDyvlG3Q is an amusing (and very well done) look at the topic.

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It's been two weeks since I've seen The Man. We were supposed to get together in Newburgh last night, but work pressures intervened, so it's tomorrow. I'm heading to NJ for the Saturday performances at Rakkasah, and he will join me there.

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Whoops. A PBS program on child brides in India is starting. Gotta sign off.
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