Re)named: Math ed - Saure Trauben der Mathematik

[Matthew Cissell]

See related article from Scientific American (Aug) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=building-a-better-science-teacher

What most shocked me was the following: "A 2007 study of prospective elementary and middle school mathematics teachers' content knowledge in 16 countries found that American teachers knew less math than many of their counterparts... When it came to algebra knowledge, American teachers scored dead last." Ouch. explains a lot for me. Go USA.

mc


________________________________
 From: Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 8:12 PM
Subject: Re: Saure Trauben der Mathematik
 

related and fun. read the essay linked: http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_03_08.html



On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 5:46 PM, alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:

more like with sweet grapes or Grace, P turns, water into sweet grapes
>on the vine land. he is an author of american fiction, not a character
>on the big bang, or in one of his novels. Jeez, I am a bit
>disappointed that the P-list does not recognize that the characters
>are obsessed with these kinds of things, winning nobels and the like,
>and that P shows how such stupidity  can drain one of sweetness.
>
>
>On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 12:46 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:
>> On 7/31/2012 11:17 AM, Matthew Cissell wrote:
>>
>> And I thought i was the only one thinking along those lines.
>>
>>
>> The theory does have a certain something going for it, but does it really
>> make sense that his early and continuous success as a novelist was
>> insufficiently-ego-building as to render him seriously affected by a
>> relatively petty rejection.  Can't imagine the actual acceptees wouldn't
>> have been tickled pink to exchange places with the Pyncher.
>>
>> To me it just don't hold water.
>>
>>
>> P
>>
>>
>> ciao
>> mc
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>
>> To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>; pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 12:09 PM
>> Subject: Saure Trauben der Mathematik
>>
>>
>> Me thinks there's an autobiographical dimension in this. After the
>> publication of V Pynchon wanted to add a math degree to his literature BA.
>> But in 1964 "Pynchon tells friends he has recently been denied admission to
>> an undergraduate program in mathematics at the University of California at
>> Berkeley", as it says in the Chronology of the Cambridge Companion. So the
>> making fun of math plus the fact that "P has math given up by main
>> characters in order to live" in AtD are oozing an aroma of sour grapes.
>>
>>
>> On 31.07.2012 00:47, Mark Kohut wrote:
>>
>>   From imaginary numbers on in AtD, mathematics is another trope
>> about our self-alienating distance from the physical world, certain values
>> to live by, other human relationships' meanings and more, I submit.
>>
>> I know no one else is rereading at the moment but from memory or when you
>> do, make the case for higher-level math in ATD that is
>> not part of the ridicule?  I can't see it.
>>
>> It is no accident, as Ian observed and as the verbal footfall of a finished
>> argument, that P has math given up by main characters in
>> order to live...Yashmeen so clearly it is almost heavy-handed, imho, yet in
>> his way, TRP encodes tons of nuance (as usual) entertaining us
>> with his theme.....
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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