I'm forwarding this, enqueued with Math Forum moderators, as it gives some background perspective of potential utility to edu-sig subscribers, plus indirectly expresses my gratitude to Stef Mientki for his promising project. If you're embroiled in USA "math wars" at all and want to do background reading on this thread, here's a link: http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=1869138&tstart=0 I'd recommend staying blissfully ignorant of a lot of it though, lest you get caught up in dinosaur flavors of "should we allow calculators in math class?" kinds of debates (nothing at all about computer languages), angry mud slinging that's been going on for decades and going nowhere (lots of energy sinks, time sucks, not worth your attention). You may wonder why I bother to comment then, on Michael's mud-slinging (appended). As I mentioned in a follow-up: """ I'll fix and upload to edu-sig, in case Math Forum management decides not to archive publicly -- should go somewhere, world-readable, given my marketing angle -- Grunch isn't Michael's to spin, at least not all by himself. I have my investments to protect. """ For those with no idea what "Grunch" means (esoteric!), here's another Math Forum thread you might find edifying in this regard: http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=1866451&tstart=0 If you heard my talk at Chicago Pycon last year, or watched it on YouTube or ShowMeDo, you know that I talk about Fuller a lot -- a part of my (Quaker brand) futurism. Kirby ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: kirby urner <kirby.urner@gmail.com> Date: Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 11:06 AM Subject: Re: The 'Certified' Teacher Myth To: Michael Paul Goldenberg Cc: math-teach@mathforum.org, Richard Tchen, Haim, Wayne Bishop I haven't been following math-teach closely of late, don't think spitting in anyone's face, Haim's included (a mask), is going to solve the problems of Grunch being semi in control of world affairs, Grunch being Fuller's psychological projection (into American literature) of the phenomenon of wholesale globalization. If you're at all curious about my focus these days, aside from K-mods in the enneacontahedron (per geometry-pre-college, a different Math Forum list), I'm getting input from my peers re my upcoming 'Python for Teachers' in Chicago next spring. In particular, I've been looking for ways to integrate the VPython window, for spatial geometry, vectors and so on, with the shell and editing environments. Just yesterday, I learned of a breakthrough in this regard thanks to Google's Summer of Code program, a way of bringing strong coders into positions better able to benefit a larger population. Here's a screen shot of overlapping windows with VPython's one of them (spatial geometry lesson): http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/3105638687/sizes/o/ Here's a screen shot of a new project-based IDE (integrated development environment) with VPython just one more display panel, surrounded by editing surfaces (modeling a hospital ER): http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/3105561953/sizes/o/ I've already informed my edu-sig friends (a list in Python Nation), of my intent to showcase the latter as a part of my discussion, even if only in slide format. Certified teachers from the Chicago area are invited to this workshop, but mostly we're pandering to private sector geeks, thinking once they get out of high school, they'll go directly into corporate training programs, a lot of 'em, bypassing college until later maybe. Many will start in these programs even before finishing high school, as a bridge to some future position. Tuitions are really high right now, out of step with the ambient culture, especially in light of how far behind the times your average PhD has become (in just about any field you care to mention). Silicon Forest needs people, can't afford to sponsor these pipelines that no longer work for us. So as you can see, the whole thing about "certification" is kind of a side issue. In the private sector, we have our own way of designing a meritocracy, aren't looking to teacher unions for direction, not our culture. Kirby Urner grunch.net On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 10:42 AM, Michael Paul Goldenberg wrote: << SNIP >>

As we prepare for what well may another world-wide depression thanks to the GRUNCH of the giants that Haim doesn't want to discuss here (we're supposed to believe that it's teachers' unions that got us where we are, I suppose), we should be spitting in the faces of people like Haim and their self-serving, utterly bankrupt views and policies.