I like mathematician Keith Devlin's meme: that math is about
making the invisible visible (i.e. accessible), such that kids
learning the relevant concepts will at least be able to track
what's up in the news.
For example, this Y2K business is getting a lot of focus, and
kids might learn some generic patterns pertain e.g. that part
of the problem is languages go out of date, and finding a COBOL
programmer who really knows the ins and outs of some dino
bookkeeping system running on an creaky IBM 360/370 VM is
difficult, if not impossible. Lots of old timers are coming
out of retirement to add those missing 2 digits they thought
would never be needed some half a century ago (because they
just assumed their handiwork would be superceded, not realizing
that the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" syndrome pertains
here as everywhere).
Mathematics is likewise built around languages, some coming
into vogue, some going out, and it takes real work to decode
some of the older ones, once intelligible to contemporaries.
You could talk about languages having a "half life" (like
plutonium) where their tendency is to "decay" (lose half their
remaining sense) over time. Only if people really work to keep
a language up to date, add spit and polish, and really get in
there to do some low level overhaul now and then (as in the Y2K
instance), does it stand a chance of avoiding an entropic fate,
dispersal to the four winds, ala the alchemical works of Sir
Isaac Newton and Renaissance curriculum writer Paracelsus
(I call this the "Ozymandius Syndrome").
Which brings me to the late 20th century (2000 is still 21st
BTW, as most of you know, the 21st beginning with 2001 but Y2K
_is_ the more exciting digits turnover). Part of what history
our kids need to learn, if they're to track the news with any
understanding, are the politics swirling around alternative
futures. The September 1998 issue of Popular Mechanics sums it
up: an article on 'tensegrity tents' and another on supermacho
guns for elite special forces (big bucks!).
The tensegrity article links to Fuller, awarded the Medal of
Freedom by President Reagan (how many kids know that?), and
thereby to a whole syllabus (what colleges assign readings in?)
with implications for how we impart math-science in the 21st
century (do kids know what 'tensegrity' means?). The guns
article implies a future wherein heavy duty budgeting for
reoutfitting is focused on kill-power, meaning we must not be
any closer to that relatively utopian environment we see on
'Star Trek' episodes, wherein at least the humans seem to have
gotten their act together. What a bummer.
Two competing views of the future here: relatively utopian
versus relatively distopian. Which way will it it go? Making
the invisible visible is what kids need to do if they're to
have ringside seats on all the battles now going on to shape
the curriculum according to where we'd like to go today (to
borrow a Microsoft slogan).
Kirby
Curriculum writer
4D Solutions
For further reading:
http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/bio.html <- a Fuller synopsis
http://www.inetarena.com/~pdx4d/ocn/urner.html <- 21st century geometry
http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/intro.html <- other stuff (eg NCMT memo)
****************************************************************************
* To post to the list: email mathedcc@archives.math.utk.edu *
* To unsubscribe, send mail to: majordomo@archives.math.utk.edu *
* In the mail message, enter ONLY the words: unsubscribe mathedcc *
* Words in the Subject: line are NOT processed! *
* Archives at http://archives.math.utk.edu/hypermail/mathedcc/ *
****************************************************************************