[Gllug] Algorithm question

[Roger Whittaker]

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.

Roger
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