[Gllug] Algorithm question

[Adrian McMenamin]

On Wed, 2007-02-28 at 17:33 +0000, Roger Whittaker wrote:
> On 2/27/07, John Winters <john at sinodun.org.uk> wrote:
> 
> > Your bastard of an idiot of a GCSE maths teacher probably didn't have
> > any choice in the matter.  There is a lot of really irrelevant stuff in
> > the GCSE maths syllabus, but I don't know of any current GCSE maths
> > syllabus which includes matrices.  Unfortunately our hands are really
> > tied - you have to teach the stuff which is on the syllabus, and there's
> > so much irrelevant stuff on the syllabus there isn't time to teach any
> > interesting-but-not-on-the-syllabus bits like we'd like to.
> >
> > <snip long rant about the stupidity of our current
> > one-size-doesn't-fit-anybody approach to teaching maths, on the grounds
> > that it would be a long rant>
> 
> In the "good old days" the SMP (School Mathematics Project) Maths
> 'O'-level syllabus taught geometry through vectors, transformations,
> and matrices, with matrix algebra - good stuff, now all gone from
> schools in the name of "relevance" as dictated by the new Gradgrinds
> in the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and such places.

Well, I did SMP Maths O level and it wasn't all that relevant (ie I
didn't do any of the above for AO or A level or even in University
Mathematics for Physics courses (though some simple vector maths was
used with Quantum Mechanics).

Incidentally, I also had a supply teacher once who said we had our
vectors all wrong "because that isn't the way we did it when we were
bombing the Ruhr" (this was the 80s too - I'm not *that* old).

I have to say the claim that this maths wasn't too relevant seems fair
enough to me - quadratics and simultaneous equations were more useful.

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