by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | Jan 03, 2016
Math
Now I have taken many math classes at the University: from linear & abstract algebra to Calculus 1-3, Topology and more but one day while in Advanced Calculus we had been studying a cut theory for weeks, trying to figure out the difference between a 1 and a 2, and it occurred to me how utterly simple and basic all this math stuff was conceptually; and that even a first grader could understand it; and in fact it is my opinion that we should teach Calculus to all our children in elementary school. To put this into context, I’m not saying we should teach them how to solve complex equations, derivatives or integrals. It is a fact that I was a lousy math student in public school since I didn’t have good number sense or a calculator. I made straight ‘Fs’ in math until I got to the University, where I made straight ‘As’. The difference? The higher you get into math, the less it has to do with numbers and the more it has to do with concepts. What I am saying, is that the concepts are so simple and profound that they apply to everything and should be taught to our children at a very early age. In fact I have taught all my kids calculus –without them knowing it—by the first or second grade. Simply put Calculus is magical, philosophical and depends on faith. It solves an ancient unsolvable problem of determining the exact area under a curve. It just says as you make each square smaller and smaller and as the size goes to zero the limit of the equation that describes the curve is exactly equal to this. Kids can get this stuff and see the beauty and usefulness of math.
When you walk along the sea shore, you can pick up an Abalone Shell and tell your kids that if you had the equation for this shell, you could tell EXACTLY how many drops of sea water it would hold.
“a boy playing on the seashore”
“I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
–Isaac Newton (developed Calculus in the 17th century)