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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!rochester!bbn!uwmcsd1!dogie!edwards
From: edwards@dogie.edu ( Mark Edwards)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.edu,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Becoming CAI literate
Message-ID: <29@dogie.edu>
Date: 17 Feb 88 22:49:30 GMT
References: <26@dogie.edu> <3340@killer.UUCP> <3231@arthur.cs.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: edwards@dogie.macc.wisc.edu ( Mark Edwards)
Organization: UW-Madison Academic Computer Center
Lines: 40

In article <3231@arthur.cs.purdue.edu> tlh@cs.purdue.EDU (Thomas L. Hausmann) writes:
%In article <3340@killer.UUCP>, elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green) writes:
%> > 
%> >   I for one am certainly glad that I was drilled in multiplication tables and
%> > so on. I use them everytime I go to the SuperMarket. 
%> 
%> Wow. What an old argument. 
%
%So what, so are proofs of the Pythagorean theorem and the infinite number of
%primes; they are still valid.
%
%> ...  I grew up before the era of cheap calculators, and
%> I STILL heard that argument from 90 year old math teachers (most of whom are
%> still teaching the same thing that they taught 50 years ago, despite that the
%> world has changed an aweful lot since then!). I, too, go shopping. Estimation
%> skills are more useful than multiplication skills (gee, is 16oz at $1.73 a
%> better bargan than 12oz at $1.34?). Can you say "straw man argument"? 
%
%How did you arrive at your ability to do estimation?  Hmmm ... oh I don't
%know... SA- er ah PRACTICE?

~
  Many great arguments deleted.

 I agree that perhaps there should be time spent discovering new ways of 
 instruction, and learning. However until then what has been proven to 
 work in the past, has to be used today. I wish it were otherwise.

 Another argument for the drills is observation. I've seen so many people 
 who could not add properly, do percentages (lets see whats a 20 percent
 discont on $18.99. Ah, well, thats 2 dollars right?), don't bother to 
 compare prices etc. Perhaps this is an argument that there isn't enough
 time spent on drills! Perhaps it illustrates that not enough time is
 spent on practical drills (or giving students examples how they can be
 used in real life situations).

mark
-- 
    edwards@vms.macc.wisc.edu
    UW-Madison, 1210 West Dayton St., Madison WI 53706