Re: Factoring Trinomials

Mark Harbison (MHfractal@AOL.COM)
Sat, 1 Feb 1997 17:19:14 -0500

In a message dated 97-01-30 01:36:16 EST, you write:

<< I think I'm a better person because I was educated, not just trained.
>>

Oooh... how impressive.

It's too bad that your students expect so much from technology. I can relate
to the frustration of trying to get students to think instead of button-push.
But they _are_ going to have access to technology now and in the future. So
does this mean that students will never be "better people"?

Couldn't we be more optomistic tha that?

I believe that students can be both "educated" about how x2+5x+6 equals
(x+2)(x+3) AND "trained" to let the calculator to do the trial-and-error
work for them.

Mark Harbison
Whittier, CA