[email protected]

In a message dated 7/8/2002 10:21:50 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:


> I hope I'm making sense.

Loud and clear!!!

> If I had to guess I would say that fewer than 10% of people need to
> know any math beyond the 7th grade level. And a lot of people would be
> better off if they understood 7th grade math in greater depth and how to
> apply it better. So what is math beyond 7th grade good for? I think it's
> a
> subconscious conspiracy. Schools don't teach higher math because kids need
>
> to know it. The neat thing about math is that for grading and judging
> young
> peoples' "intelligence," it's very handy.

Most of formal education is really for filtering. That is DEFINITELY what
higher math is for - occasionally that is almost admitted openly - I've heard
teachers say, "How would we know who ought to go on to higher education and
who shouldn't if they don't all have to take algebra?"

National Home Education Network
http://www.NHEN.org
Changing the Way the World Sees Homeschooling!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

In a message dated 7/8/2002 10:21:50 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:


> From what I've read, your daughter has a huge amount of
> self-discipline. What she needs is someone who can show her how to apply
> that self-discipline to the kind of playing she wants to do.

Exactly. She's extraordinarily self-disciplined, as a matter of fact (much
more so than her mother <G>). And, she's not averse to doing exercises at
all. But she wants to know the purpose - feel assured that there IS a purpose
and that they are leading to what she wants.

--pam

National Home Education Network
http://www.NHEN.org
Changing the Way the World Sees Homeschooling!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

In a message dated 7/8/2002 10:21:50 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:


> I like the point, though, and I think it's important for the student to know
>
> the instructor is not just one lesson ahead of them, but really is a master
>
> of the instrument and LIKES the instrument, doesn't just "like" beginning
> lessons.
>

I sometimes point out that mathematicians don't sit around and do arithmetic
- that they work on stuff that they nobody knows how to do yet. It seems to
surprise some people <G>.

--pam

National Home Education Network
http://www.NHEN.org
Changing the Way the World Sees Homeschooling!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Julie Stauffer

<<Even if you can do long division in your head, you may not know that it
is based on the distributive property>>

I am 38 years old and just figured this out. Now I have a graduate degree
that required a fair number of math hours and I just figured this out.

I was telling dh that I was considering going back to finish my pilot's
license (I couldn't pass the test before due to the math) because it feels
like a switch has flipped in my brain and suddenly math makes much more
sense to me. Dh, who really likes numbers, couldn't conceive of the
possibility of not having the switch to the "on" position from the get-go.

Julie