[Edu-sig] K-16 CS/math hybrid

[Greg Matheson]

On Sun, 08 May 2005, Kirby Urner wrote:

> The exalted status of sets in 1960s USA grade school math traces back to
> Ivory Tower innovations by Russell/Whitehead et al in the UK, and their
> attempt to put arithmetic on a "secure footing" using set concepts.  This
> footing became even more convoluted with Cantor.

> Wittgenstein, a hero of mine, was always in the dissenting camp, thinking
> set theory "underpins" arithmetic the way a painted foundation supports a
> painted tower, i.e. it doesn't really.  

Can you say some more about that? I thought Wittgenstein was a
protege of Russell, and changed his mind later. Was he always
claiming the emperor had no clothes?

> Purists might complain that I'm trying to ruin the basic math curriculum, by
> polluting it with CS concepts.  But I say I'm trying to *rescue* set
> concepts from obscurity and neglect, by integrating them into a nutritious
> and wholesome diet featuring a wider variety of data structures.

On the other side, at the college level, there is the
math-thinking list of computer science instructors trying to
increase the rigor of the CS curriculum.

URL: http://www.cs.geneseo.edu/mailman/listinfo/math-thinking/

-- 
Greg Matheson, Taiwan