![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
В сегодняшней NYT самым обсуждаемым стал оп-ед под названием "Нужна ли детям алгебра" заслуженного профессора политологии из SUNY. По мнению профессора, алгебра большинству школьников и студентов только мешает и ее надо заменить "народной статистикой" (citizens statistics). Как заметил один комментатор, если бы не личность автора, статью можно было бы принять за шутку. А так - это интересный момент во все продолжающейся войне физиков и лириков.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-30 04:05 am (UTC)Back in the late 1950s, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the earth. This induced a panic in the US, where it was perceived that US technological superiority---and therefore life, liberty, and the American Way---were all in mortal danger. One outcome was the passage of the National Defense Education Act, which provided substantial federal funding for schools, with emphasis on math.
We can cut the math from the curriculum because it's it's hard, because it's ego-deflating, etc. But somehow, I don't think that up-and-coming countries like China and India are going to subscribe to this approach; and so it's only a matter of time until it's deja vu, all over again.
Unless, of course, our national ideal is to reduce ourselves to third-world status, as so often seems the case these days. If that's what you're after, the let's-not-do-algebra thought is doin' it right.
(из обсуждения)