But, but, but ... How old were we when we met natural logarithms and the tale of Baron Napier? Fourteen maybe? "Napier's Bones": remember them? When did we meet the exponential function as the solution to a differential equation? Sixteen perhaps.
I know how old I was when we were shown an Euler result, e^(i*pi) = -1. Sixteen: I thought it one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. Still do.
It was a jolly good idea, the old idea that schools should be about education. Pity we abandoned it, really.
I've come to think that Pareto's "Principle" is a very useful insight and explains a great deal.
From Grokipedia: "The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, is an empirical observation that approximately 80% of effects arise from 20% of causes across diverse phenomena, highlighting inherent inequalities in distributions."
To me it suggests that equality, or fairness, are not only 'natural' but that also any attempt to impose them will rapidly fail.
dearieme - in the first year of secondary school we had a very inspiring English teacher but he left after the first year. For a few years we had a pretty good history teacher too. I've often wondered if I would ever have favoured arts over sciences if the teaching had been different, but we also had a very inspiring physics teacher.
Education seems to have a number of problems, but from the outside I don't see much in state education to attract and keep the best teachers, those who do inspire.
DJ - yes, there are a number of insights such as that which could usefully be taught in schools. Once people have insights of that nature they tend to remember them for life, they form the basis of understanding that some things can be changed and some can't without causing damage.
3 comments:
But, but, but ... How old were we when we met natural logarithms and the tale of Baron Napier? Fourteen maybe? "Napier's Bones": remember them? When did we meet the exponential function as the solution to a differential equation? Sixteen perhaps.
I know how old I was when we were shown an Euler result, e^(i*pi) = -1.
Sixteen: I thought it one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. Still do.
It was a jolly good idea, the old idea that schools should be about education. Pity we abandoned it, really.
I've come to think that Pareto's "Principle" is a very useful insight and explains a great deal.
From Grokipedia: "The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, is an empirical observation that approximately 80% of effects arise from 20% of causes across diverse phenomena, highlighting inherent inequalities in distributions."
To me it suggests that equality, or fairness, are not only 'natural' but that also any attempt to impose them will rapidly fail.
dearieme - in the first year of secondary school we had a very inspiring English teacher but he left after the first year. For a few years we had a pretty good history teacher too. I've often wondered if I would ever have favoured arts over sciences if the teaching had been different, but we also had a very inspiring physics teacher.
Education seems to have a number of problems, but from the outside I don't see much in state education to attract and keep the best teachers, those who do inspire.
DJ - yes, there are a number of insights such as that which could usefully be taught in schools. Once people have insights of that nature they tend to remember them for life, they form the basis of understanding that some things can be changed and some can't without causing damage.
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