I'm gifted in math and it always came easy, but that didn't keep me from inquiring as to why we were learning about imaginary numbers. It seemed pretty useless when I was in high school, and my math teacher did not provide a very satisfying answer. Other children have a lower threshold for motivation to learn math they don't see the point of. These children need inspiration.
I agree completely, so I think I didn't make myself clear.
The textbooks used today (well, the ones I've looked at anyway) have so much extra stuff, it crowds out actual information. Here are examples from my son's geometry book:
- LiNK
- Who uses this?
- Engineering application
- CONCEPT CONNECTION
- Why learn this?
- California Standards
- Remember!
This is on top of semi-useful stuff like "Know-It Notes," "Helpful Hints," "Standardized Test Prep!" and "Spiral Review." There are bright, distracting icons everywhere and the book is loaded with irrelevant color photographs of things like traffic signals, puppies, heroes on horseback, and the Statue of Liberty. Did you know that her index finger is 8 feet long? I do now, thanks to that book. But what this has to do with similar triangles I do not know.
There's very little space for actual text that you'd have to sit down and concentrate on. But that might be hard, and geometry wouldn't be "accessible."
I'm looking at a "challenge" problem in my son's book. It's a straightforward question about side-hypotenuse relationships in a 45-45-90 triangle (the side is 1; how long is the hypotenuse?). For those who've forgotten, the formula is 1-1-root 2.
I think that basic geometry is a really great thing for students who aren't mathematically inclined. What tears at me is that with books like the one I have on my desk, difficult geometry is out of the question.
