ela (11/18/82)
I recently graduated from CWRU and, while taking a course in Non-linear Programming, was exposed to a method of teaching proof techniques that was developed by my professor, Daniel Solow. He has written a brief paperback text ($8.00) which is applicable to a freshman level course. A simpler text oriented to a high school or junior high school student is in the works. My reason for commenting to the general news is that a structured means of approaching mathematical proofs revolutionized my time in grad school. It was far easier to comprehend the mathematical logic in theorems, lemmas, etc. and I found myself developing a much deeper understanding and appreciation for the material I was learning not only in the NLP course, but in other "heavy" courses such as linear system theory and dynamic optimization. If I had only had these tools as a freshman! Or in high school! I learned an effective tool to analytical thinking and found an approach to logical thought that reached far beyond its original purpose. I advocate a course in elementary proof techniques be taught at least to college freshmen in mathematics, engineering, etc. and, if possible, that it be taught in secondary school. This type of material could be useful to those in the computing sciences as well as those in other mathematically oriented fields, the thought processes are quite similar on an abstract level. Eric Asbeck houxy!5941ux!ela