re: 17 Equations that changed the world

quote:

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That's asking a lot. I can't imagine most middle school math teachers knowing how the Pythagorean theorem is derived.

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I give them a little bit more credit than you. They've got to pass analytical geometry in most states (not to mention the entire Calculus sequence and Diff. Eq.) to get a middle school math teaching certificate.

At some point, their professors in college had to have shown them the implications of cutting a square along the diagonal.

Now, whether or not they remember what they learned when they got into the classroom, I dunno.



Edit: My guess is that a lot of people who major in secondary education concentrations of math/science probably graduate with the same level of mental sharpness as undergraduate who straight-up major in just those math/science disciplines without going into education.


What ends up happening though is that education majors quickly lose their sharpness because they have to learn to dumb it down for the students. If you try to educate your students on how to mathematically derive the Pythagorean theorem from the implications of cutting a square along the diagonal, parents are going to come down on you for teaching "over the kids' heads" and principals are going to tell you to teach to the test.