Rod Speed wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote
Rod Speed wrote

It certainly doesnt make any sense to be teaching plumbers pure maths unless they want to do that.

Actually EVERYBODY ought to have if not the facility to use it, a basic *understanding* of pure maths philosophy and
science.

Dont agree with that with the sort of individual that is
only able to do stuff like drive a truck etc with pure maths.

And I'm not convinced its even possible to do with science
with the worst of the fundys that believe that their collection
of fairy storys is the literal word of some god or other.

Buy that I don't mean following the reasoning, just understanding where it fits in the general pool of knowledge.

I believe thats beyond a decent subset of kids.

Just how big that subset is is another question.

There's a reason that the sales of 'natural' remedys is so unbelievable.

Then I could dispense with the signature below.

I had to plough through Penrose twice before I realised WTF he was actually doing...and that it was in principle,
simple ..

And there is a very substantial subset of the kids that will never manage that, even
with the best teachers, and it will never be possible to have most teachers that good.

though the actual mechanics of manipulating abstract algebras, I will take on trust.

I'm not convinced that it makes much sense to even be teaching that stuff to say hair dressers.

Makes more sense to concentrate on much more basic stuff like
not actually racking up debts that incur very high interest rates etc
and even with that, I dont believe that even the best teachers can
get even that message thru to some of the more stupid kids.

I setup DSL and voip for a kid's family that has just left high school after
doing all the years that are available to do, with quite decent results.

I keep getting questions about whether the voip invoice means that
he has a credit and so has money he can spend etc, with one of the
clearer statement formats around. There is something very fundamentally
wrong with an education system that produces a result like that.

Account Summary
Opening Balance $10.00 CR
Call Charge $1.50 DR
Service Charge $4.95 DR
Payment $6.45 CR
Closing Balance $10.00 CR

I cant decide if he's just thick or just super cautious and wants confirmation etc.


You need to learn then. You have not even understood the point.
That is arithmetic, not mathematics.



--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.