Re: Compression and crypto

daw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (David Wagner) writes:

David A. Scott wrote:
For touch point math see
http://www.psd267.wednet.edu/~kfranz/Math/MathBooklets/mathbooklets.htm
this is a sore point for me. It makes me want to vomit.

Oh, dear. I can see what you mean. Our math & science curriculum
really has a long way to go. How depressing.

Oh, come on. If the kids can learn to memorize those touchpoints they are a
lot better than most of us. Especially when you start reusing them ("We
touch both the point and the circle surrounding the point")!
Kids have be adding on their fingers for millenia, and abacuses are a
formalised method for doing so.
Whether it helps them learn addition or not I am not sure. It is probably
conceptually better than just memorizing the addition tables, although the
latter is more useful. But I must say that the "touchpoint"method is just
weird.




It reminds me of an essay from Richard Feynman, from when he agreed
to review textbooks for elementary schools. You might enjoy reading
it -- if it weren't so darn depressing, it would be almost funny.

http://www.textbookleague.org/103feyn.htm
.

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