In article <1992Dec19.234517.5334@ucc.su.OZ.AU> DM writes:
>
[deletia]
>
>DM is surprised. "Don't you folks in the US learn calculus in high
>school?
korz@cs.columbia.edu (Frederick Korz) replies:
[deletia]
> For the mathematics and the sciences, they compressed 2 years into 1
>and thereafter simply threw you in with people a year ahead of you.
Frood, at least they let you get the material somehow. I was
outraged that I couldn't take calculus. My school system
(Virginia) had
9th - Algebra I
10th - Geometry
11th - Algebra II
12th - Trigonometry
*However* if you got tracked into middle school Algebra I
you could take Geometry in 9th and end up with Calculus.
I came in from out-of-state for high school (from Panama) and
there was no way provided to get into the honors math classes
if you hadn't been <properly> tracked in middle school.
Who knows, I might have been a physics major instead of an
archaeologist if I could have handled the maths. My Algebra I
teacher was psychotic also which didn't help my learning curve
any. My geometry teacher was a monotonic and soporific
speaker. Algebra II I remember not at all (can it have been worse!)
Trig was a blessing. That year I went to a Summerhillian school
and the same fellow taught Trig, Calc and Physics and he taught
the maths you needed to do the physics. It all made sense there
for a year.
I did take college trig and did quite well. Then I took statistics,
that raised my anxiety level just too high to keep going. Its the
only time I have felt compelled to write at the bottom of an exam
(on which I actually got an A-) <if you pass me, I promise I will
not take the next class> And I didn't. Never took any math again.
:-(
Rowan Fairgrove
*****************************************
The wheel of the year is turning now. The season of darkness stretches before us like a great and sunless sea. Listen: the stag bells, the summer has gone. Winter winds blow wet and cold, the sun is low, short its course, the sea running high. Deep red the bracken, its shape lost; the little wren finds no shelter for her nest; the wild goose has raises its familiar cry.
