Hmm. Maybe what I really meant was: this has been submitted at least twice before, three and four months ago or so, and in neither case did it generate any discussion.
I hope it does this time, because it's been shown to be interesting enough to be "discovered" by more than one participant.
And I do. I've never understood the US schools emphasis on calculus, and building it up to be such a huge deal. I first did calculus aged 16 in Year 10, and it was just another part of the syllabus. One more step to understanding the way stuff works.
Replacing it by another "BIG IDEA" seems not necessarily to be a Good Thing(tm). Perhaps there should be more of a plain, and less of a pyramid.
I agree that more elementary stats done earlier would be a really Good Thing(tm), but replacing one pyramid with another does not seem to me to be so.
First there is the recognition that there is no pyramid. Since math is so highly interrelated, learning about one area almost always helps understanding in a different area. Granted some areas require a certain prerequisites, hence you will encounter peaks, but I agree aiming for only one peak does not make all that much sense since calculus is only useful in certain situations.
I hope it does this time, because it's been shown to be interesting enough to be "discovered" by more than one participant.
And I do. I've never understood the US schools emphasis on calculus, and building it up to be such a huge deal. I first did calculus aged 16 in Year 10, and it was just another part of the syllabus. One more step to understanding the way stuff works.
Replacing it by another "BIG IDEA" seems not necessarily to be a Good Thing(tm). Perhaps there should be more of a plain, and less of a pyramid.
I agree that more elementary stats done earlier would be a really Good Thing(tm), but replacing one pyramid with another does not seem to me to be so.