Fuck this for a lark | 101 comments (101 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Umm--how are you going to do (none / 0)

Every time you replace an intractible situation involving very large (but finite) numbers with a continuous model you are doing calculus.

Yes, but you don't have to teach calculus on its own first, you can just do it, in context.

Bush is a symptom, not the disease.

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri May 25th, 2007 at 11:12:22 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Umm--how are you going to do (4.00 / 2)

I think it might be more useful to teach people to recognise when their leaders, the media, and the ad companies are all talking crap and trying to eat their brains.

Some elementary stats might be useful ('the increase in cancer risk is a shocking 100% greater! - from p = 0.0000001 to p = 0.0000002...') but perhaps best left as an optional extra for those who want the advanced course.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Fri May 25th, 2007 at 11:44:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Umm--how are you going to do (none / 0)

I think it might be more useful to teach people to recognise when their leaders, the media, and the ad companies are all talking crap and trying to eat their brains.

Which part of math is that? The point of the subthread was that, if you're going to teach people "advanced math", it should be prob/stat.

Although making "How to lie with statistics" compulsory reading in secondary school wouldn't be all that bad an idea.

Bush is a symptom, not the disease.

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri May 25th, 2007 at 11:48:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Umm--how are you going to do (4.00 / 2)

It's not math. It's education.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Fri May 25th, 2007 at 03:13:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Fuck this for a lark | 101 comments (101 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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