Thoughts on maths education

[dopplergirl]

I was at a Cafe Scientifique this evening, given by Jeremy Levesley, Head of Maths at the University of Leicester. Mostly it consisted of random arguments breaking out amongst the crowd, which included one completely pretentious prat who knew too many words and one bizarre, Russian-sounding bloke who spoke too loudly and for too long in a semi-

Comments

[dualpurpose]

I'm not so sure about the first one, some things it's really handy to be told rather than figuring out yourself - what's the point of teaching otherwise?

[dopplergirl]

Well, he didn't necessarily agree with it, but he thought it was a useful discussion point. Couple of other things he raised:
- schools are not places for children to learn, they are places where teachers are employed and teachers can teach without their pupils learning
- if something is not interesting and not immediately useful, is it worth learning?
- if there really is a maths/science crisis, where is the evidence for it? Why hasn't the market stepped in with high salaries for mathematicians and scientists?