On Fri, 17 May 2013 14:11:09 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:
On Fri, 17 May 2013 11:40:50 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:
I'm fighting the school system with, now, the 5th granddaughter, 6th
Grade.
Last week they were peddling how to cut corners out of a piece of
cardboard to form a box with the maximum volume, with no established
skill set.... "guess" your way to the solution :-(
This week they suddenly jumped to Algebra, simultaneous equations,
without even any single variable background.
And she says her teacher is already using the word "Calculus". I guess
that's the leftist way anymore, speaking the words makes you expert :-(
No wonder US students rank so low, worldwide, in math (and science).
Fortunately the school year is almost over, and she'll be with us for a
month in July.
So my question...
Can anyone recommend an available Algebra book that instructs in the old
fashioned sequential way... lots of one variable word problems first,
then go on to more advanced topics?
I'll become teacher of the month ;-)
(I taught math back in 1964-65 to disadvantaged youth (aka "thugs") from
South Phoenix with a very high success rate :-)
Check out the Life of Fred books. They're written for homeschoolers
(home scholars?). IIRC you're mostly agnostic, so be aware that there's
a little bit of Christianity thrown in gratis -- it's not preachy, it's
just kind of in there. It's not enough to offend unless you're a Koran/
Torah/"The God Delusion"/"Book of Mormon"/whatever-thumping
fundamentalist.
They're written as biographies of Fred, who's a pre-pubescent professor
of math at KITTENS University (Kansas Institute for Teaching Technology
Engineering and Natural Science). Mixed in amongst his adventures with
coping in the real world are quite a few math lessons. This sounds
really dorky as I write it -- but the author is quite brilliant about
mixing in just enough "story" to keep the math engaging (the story line
is where the Christianity comes in), and keeping the math rigorous.
"Life of Fred, Beginning Algebra", Stanley F. Schmidt, 2009, Polka Dot
Publishing, ISBN: 978-9-9709995-1-1
"Life of Fred, Beginning Algebra", Stanley F. Schmidt, 2002, Polka Dot
Publishing, ISBN: 0-9709995-2-6
Do a search, you'll find plenty of reviews.
Thanks, Tim!
I'm not the offendable type. My family consists of Christians, Jews
and Catholics, and Atheists/Agnostics like me; and well as Hispanics,
and we get on famously.
...Jim Thompson
--
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