I mentioned my freshman calc teacher Bill Kirby in previous item. I didn’t know much about him. I only knew his attitude and method represented everything I hated about American math teaching. In my own later teaching and courseware I’ve been trying to counteract those bad American tendencies.
Found Kirby’s obituary. Nothing about politics, nothing about wife or kids, just a life of MATH from start to finish. The story emphasizes his influence in spreading the Moore Method of math teaching. I hadn’t heard of it.
Per wikipedia, here’s how it works ideally in a graduate class.
1. When possible, select the students for the class. Aim for max talent and min previous experience so the teacher can shape them from scratch.
2. Forbid textbooks, forbid talking with each other after class. Learning must come solely from competitive theory-proving.
3. Present a theorem to prove. Outline the terminology and other prerequisites, then turn the students loose.
4. After they’ve had a day to work on it, start calling on them to show the proof. Try to call on the least talented ones first, to help them develop by friction. Let the class point out errors and improvements to each performance.
5. Loop to 3.
= = = = =
Kirby wasn’t following this strict method in freshman calc, but he showed the same contemptuous attitude toward anything that wasn’t theorems and axioms. This sink or swim attitude pervades US math and science.
High school math is NOT meant to give students meaningful learning, it’s ONLY meant to select the most likely PhD candidates by attrition. Normal kids hate math because MATH CLASS IS DESIGNED TO MAKE THEM HATE MATH AND STOP POLLUTING THE TALENT POOL OF THEOREM-PROVERS.
Polistra's Mill 