Math question Options

[James]

See poll. Feel free to discuss if you want, but I'm curious to what responses I'll get.

The basis of this question comes from a book I'm reading, "How Mathematics Happened," and in particular, this paragraph:

In ancient Greece, mathematics was a respected subject. Now it is the most detested of school subjects. What did the Greeks do in mathematical education that we are not doing today?

...

Greek schooling was limited to reading, writing, rhetoric, music, and athletics. After completion of schooling, a man could add to his education by listening to lectures given by wandering scholars called Sophists. If he specifically wanted to learn mathematics, he listened to a Sophist who lectured about mathematics. Mathematics was an elective for the mature. Arithmetic ability was not necessary for the educated Greek; he had slaves to do his menial mental as well as physical labor. Today's more human equivalent of the slave is the electronic calculator.

I suppose the same idea would apply to science.

This post has been edited by Spectatrix: Jun 12 2007, 12:58 PM

[Spectatrix]

The only thing I ever hated about math was the damn busy work. Once I got into college and it was less busy work, more learning new stuff, I loved it. However, if it were to be replaced, I'd replace it with some kind of technology instruction -- programming, for instance.