Most high-school math classes are still preparing students for the Sputnik era. Steve Levitt wants to get rid of the “geometry sandwich” and instead have kids learn what they really need in the modern era: data fluency.
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/math-curriculum/
Today's math curriculum is teaching students to expect -- and excel at --paint-by-numbers classwork, robbing kids of a skill more important than solving problems: formulating them. Dan Meyer shows classroom-tested math exercises that prompt students to stop and think.
Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover
Jeff - the most important skill in today’s world is asking good questions. There is so much data, but only accessible by the good question. I have found search engines, books, and related information sources so helpful as I have improved my critical thinking / questioning skills. One of the reasons I love the kindle is because of my ability to efficiently “connect the dots” between different books. If an individual book represents the left brain action, the kindle helps to connect the dots for the right brain.
Also, this leads to the counterfactual. Almost all imagination is built on a known information framework. The bigger the information foundation, the higher the counterfactual house.
Math class needs a makeover
Someone always asks the math teacher, "Am I going to use calculus in real life?" And for most of us, says Arthur Benjamin, the answer is no. He offers a bold proposal on how to make math education relevant in the digital age.
Teach statistics before calculus!
See TED Talk
7/10/20
Zach Carter’s book “The Price of Peace” discusses FDRs administration, how he implemented Keynesian economic theories and dramatically revamped American life, not seen since the Civil War.
Perhaps now is the time to bring Americans into the information age / 21st century. Start breaking down the technology monopolies and provide technology / bandwidth/ related training to all Americans. Revamp the math curriculumn to focus more on stats and data science and reduce the focus on theoretical mathematics.
8/25/20
Included should be fractal mathematics, the math of dynamical systems, and the use of power laws.
I find fractal math to be challenging. My question is 1) is it challenging because it is actually technically more difficult or 2) because I have to “unlearn” much of the old math before fractals makes more intuitive sense.