I had previously read this essay and do not agree with it.
I can see this point. If I understand it, the Calculus Trap article argues that students should be "learning how to take tools they have and apply them to complex problems."
What I don't get here is that calculus does
exactly that: you have to use existing tools (algebra, geometry, arithmetic) and apply them to complex problems ("How many miles did you travel from 2 pm to 6 pm if your velocity could be described according to this formula: <insert quadratic equation>?" "A farmer has 168 meters of fencing and wants to maximize the area of a rectangular corral. What should its dimensions be?"). Etc.
Another danger of the calculus trap is social. Aside from the obvious perils of placing a 15 year old in a social environment of 19 year olds....
Since when? 1979 or so? High schools have been offering calculus for decades.
If ever you are by far the best, or the most interested, student in a classroom, then you should find another classroom.
Huh? So if you're good at math you can't take a math class that you'll really like? Umm.
If you're really into mathematics, you can join the Math Olympiad club, which meets after school on Tuesdays and Fridays. And your calculus will probably help you a lot, given that getting a calc problem right usually requires combining all sorts of other knowledge.
My closest friends now are doctors, bond traders, consultants, lawyers, professors, artists, and so on. Some are religious, some aren�t. Some are athletic, some aren�t. The common thread among them all is that they all enjoy using their minds. ... I met them through extracurriculars... The top athletes don�t take PE in school, or even PE in the nearby college.
What in Robert's name does this have to do with taking calculus? The author seems to be implying that taking calculus is anathema to learning to enjoy using your mind. So, all the automatons are calc class, while the really interesting kids are in study hall counting the minutes to math club?
Any really good athlete I've ever met enrolled in one or more PE classes. I expect that many of them learned that they had talent for something in PE class. Unless they had their own high jump sets at home. Some of them majored in it. PE is a great break from sitting at a desk.
