From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,fca456da8e6ec463 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-01-27 09:21:12 PST From: Florian Weimer Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Latin and other irrelevant topics Date: 27 Jan 2001 17:25:30 +0100 Organization: Enyo's not your organization Message-ID: <87d7d9dksl.fsf@deneb.enyo.de> References: <94p9fl$a1g$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <94qbb4$bs1$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <94rkj1$d4r$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <87k87i2ha7.fsf@deneb.enyo.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!isdnet!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!blackbush.xlink.net!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!news.uni-ulm.de!news.belwue.de!LF.net!news.enyo.de!news1.enyo.de!not-for-mail Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:4605 Date: 2001-01-27T17:25:30+01:00 List-Id: Brian Rogoff writes: > > Many important things have been > > discovered during the last few decades, but I doubt that (e.g.) the > > classification of finite simple groups is relevant for school teaching > > Here I think we disagree. Not necessarily. I don't think it has to be that way, I was just describing the status quo here. In fact I hope that some day, modern mathematics and, more important, the joy of mathematics hit the schools (calculus is taught in most parts in Germany as if we were in the 18th or even 17th century, it's pretty confusing and has an aura as if it was a Dark Art). > I think that there is quite a bit of modern mathematics that could > be brought to the high school student and the undergraduate (even > the ones who aren't majoring in mathematics) that is highly > relevant. Many things are relevant, but the interest in mathematics is generally low among the students in engineering and computer science (at least that's my impression). As a result, most lecturers here seem to focus on the basic stuff and present it in a rigorous manner. > Non-standard analysis, differential forms (can be introduced with > multivariable calculus), category theory (a high school level > approach in the book by Lawvere and Schanuel, linear programming, > really the list is pretty long. To be honest, I don't think non-standard analysis and differential forms are really important (compared to the Lebesgue integral, which is relatively old and not often taught to undergrads), but early exposure to category theory is probably a good idea (after you have seen a bunch of algebraic structures, of course). But it's probably a bad idea to discuss such things with me because I'm heavily biased (I'm hardly interested in calculus and applied mathematics, but I'll admit that's the part which is relevant for most students). > Personally, I'd much rather spend time studying math than studying Latin; > the latter seems a waste of time, like being forced to read Shakespeare. The way I learned Latin at school was a bit similar to real mathematics, in fact more than math itself (we were taught the Latin grammar in a rather formal way, and math mostly consisted of very technical symbolic manipulations).