Why? First 99.9% of all higher math learned in a vacuum is forgotten
within a short time. Don't thinks so? If I were to take your
highschool or college math textbooks, how much of it could you still
do cold? For most people it is very, very little.
Is what you 'feel' based on observation and experience or is it part
of the schooling conditioning? It's a fair question.
Bev, you are indulging in the schooling practice of amputatingPerhaps.
something from reality and holding it up as if it were a separate
thing with a life of it's own.
tall a certain dead tree was. I told them they could figure it out
without measuring the tree directly. After some dialog, they figured
it out without usng what you'd recognize as 'trig functions'. (I will
go through the process they came up with if you are interested).
That is, if you took the standard exams (TCAP's in this state) and
gave them the trig parts, they'd think the author of the test was
demented and far divorced from reality (and they wouldn't be far from
wrong). Yet they have an intimacy with angles and how they function
that completely does away forever with the false concept that any of
it is beyond them.
Life, for them, is the problem to be solved. Not so much solved as
savored. Take today for example, a friend took all of us for a day's
outing on the local lake on his steam launch. Eldest was given the
helm, told to keep the boiler between 100 and 120 psi, and to call
out the depth on the depth gauge (fish locator). We had a great
time, as he was wearing his pirate hat.
"Helmsman, where away?" "Bearing SSW, depth is 128 feet." "Give us
that in fathoms, mate." "Ay, 21 fathoms, capt'n." "And what speed." "Ah ... uh ... what be the length of this vessel, bos'un (friend who
owned the boat)" "28 feet" Here eldest tossed his apple core near the
bow and counted as it passed the length of the boat. "Speed be 4 feet
per second." (The boat passed the core in seven seconds). "Give us
that in knots." "Aye, capt'n, remind us again what be a nautical
mile." "1.15 land lubber miles, mate."
After a few minutes he came up with the right speed, the direction we
were going based on the sun's position (roughly) and how long it
would take us to make the return trip. All in his head while
steering the boat and looking out for shallows.
Meanwhile younger daughter was asking how the steam moved the boat,
what did the 120 psi on the gauge mean, and what happened to all that
energy by the time the cool water was exhausted.
What are his/her interests (the oldest)?
Making model ships, historically accurate ships from scratch.
It is an unexamined myth that an integrated education such as the
unschooler has makes it difficult to deal with artificially specific
subjects such as trig functions and scientific notation.
intelligent mind that has never had the false focus that it ought to
be hard and mysterious, it takes all of five minutes to explain
scientific notation and not twenty to use it in calculations.
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