[Edu-sig] A fact on the ground

[Kirby Urner]

>It doesn't "make sense" to program around math stuff to someone 
>who finds math unpleasant to begin with.  Instead, they associate
>programming with math and  become convinced that programming is 
>not for them either.
>

"Wow, if they'd only taught math THIS way when I was a kid,
I probably would have LOVED the stuff".

>Graphing calculators are getting powerful enough to qualify as 
>"good stuff", and they have the added advantage of being possible 
>to use.  Even in a compartively wealthy school district like 
>Arlington, there is very limited opportunity for math classes 
>to have access to computer labs.  

Sounds like someone's being selfish.  Poor math people, 
stuck in their calculator ghetto while the computer people
get to play all day.

>Graphing calculators, by contrast, are affordable.  I'm not at 
>all saying that we shouldn't advocate curriculum integration, 
>but if we are serious about having an impact we need to have 
>a real sense of the possible.

And it's hardly possible that we're going to let those math
people graduate from calculators to some REAL computing
machinery.  No way.  Too bad for them.  Hah hah!

Kirby