ech (05/18/82)
Jerry Leichter quotes C. P. Snow at some length, the gist being that, while most humans at least begin as scientists (how else to discover, for example, how to use language?), that many are afflicted with a mathematical "blindness" akin to being tone-deaf. I suggest that this is a particularly comfortable position for those of us (including a majority on this net) who have 20:10 (that's GOOD) mathematical vision; it certainly seems that some got it, and some ain't, and we are the fortunate chosen ones...that leads to complacency and smugness. Now, I don't believe that environment is everything: in the words of Lazarus Long, if that were true you could teach calculus to a horse. I DO believe that a normal human infant is a genius, if you measure enough dimensions, and that the environment can go a long way toward allowing that child to grow or in stunting that growth. If you are willing to be disturbed a bit, though, I can recommend some reading which will disturb you even if it doesn't change your mind: - Many of the works by John Holt; "Why Children Fail" communicates much of the essence of his thesis, that formal education (as a reality, not as an abstraction) tends to DESTROY the joy of learning, to curtail the most valuable learning behaviors. I personally, as a "success" in education institutions, found his observations disturbing. - Nearer to home, perhaps, DO NOT MISS Seymour Papert's "Mindstorms." In addition to being a fine computer scientist and a certified genius (M.Minsky calls him "the brightest person I ever met"), Papert is also a student of Piaget, and for a dozen years and more has been taking the war back home: giving computers to ten-year-olds. Both of these are available from Holt Associates, Inc., 729 Boylston St., Boston MA 02116, and at better bookstores. "Mindstorms" is available in paperback; Holt wants $6.25 + $.75 P&H for it. Enjoy... =Ned Horvath=