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: 2001-01-26 21:12:23 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!isdnet!newsfeed.cwix.com!sjc-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!sjc-read.news.verio.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada From: Brian Rogoff Subject: Re: Latin and other irrelevant topics In-Reply-To: <87k87i2ha7.fsf@deneb.enyo.de> Message-ID: 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 Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 05:12:45 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.184.139.136 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verio.net X-Trace: sjc-read.news.verio.net 980572365 206.184.139.136 (Sat, 27 Jan 2001 05:12:45 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 05:12:45 GMT Organization: Verio Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:4594 Date: 2001-01-27T05:12:45+00:00 List-Id: On 26 Jan 2001, Florian Weimer wrote: > tom_swiftjr@my-deja.com writes: > > > > In England, from the age of 7-13 I spent 10 class hours a week > > > learning Latin, and only 5 learning mathematics, when I > > > was 10, I added 5 hours a week of Greek :-) That's the way > > > things were done then. > > > Perhaps that's merely a reflection of the state of advancement of > > mathematics when you were a lad? > > There's hardly any relationship between the advancement of mathematics > and the math taught at school. Sad but true. > 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. 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. 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. 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. De gustibus non est disputandum. ;-) -- Brian