An article under EDUCATION in today's Projo asks: " Why
can't children learn algebra " ? Then the answer according to
a panel of scientists : their algebra books just don't relate
to everyday life.
It is intellectual dishonesty to pretend that the average
citizen in our country - or any country - will ever need to
use even high school algebra in everyday life.
Algebra is the language of SCIENCE . In the market-place
it will always be " Greek to me ".
The fundamental IDEA of algebra is this : Let X =
the unknown quantity. Now in the words of Albert Einstein 's
Uncle Jacob : " When the animal that we are hunting cannot
be caught, we call it X temporarily and continue to hunt it
until it is bagged . "
For a DREAMER of genius like Einstein, Algebra was
just the thing - this " lazy man's arithmetic ".
A kid more fascinated by baseball and basketball than
by the wonders of the universe will never even need a
" scientific " hand calculator.
I suspect that members of that panel of scientists
investigating " the real algebra problem " ( Projo , page
A8 , April 27 ) want to get in on the school book racket !
" Algebra is a merry science ", said Jacob Einstein . And
a merry X-mas to these scholars with the hearts of shop -keepers!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments that are courteous, concise and relevant are always welcome, whether or not they agree with the views expressed here or not. Profanity is not necessary. Thank you for reading “Time Enough At Last!”
Ron