I cited Thurston for a description of his own experience with school math.
Understood, but if it’s included on a list of quotes about math education the overall thrust of which is to show what’s wrong with it, the implication is that what he describes is one of the things which is wrong with it.
I hope it’s clear that my last line there wasn’t any kind of rejection of your explanation. I was just musing which way the bias ran. And I still think this is a worthwhile post overall.
Understood, but if it’s included on a list of quotes about math education the overall thrust of which is to show what’s wrong with it, the implication is that what he describes is one of the things which is wrong with it.
Thanks for pointing this out, you might be surprised to know that it didn’t occur to me! I’ll bear this point in mind and add some sort of disclaimer if I incorporate the quote into a top level post.
Understood, but if it’s included on a list of quotes about math education the overall thrust of which is to show what’s wrong with it, the implication is that what he describes is one of the things which is wrong with it.
I hope it’s clear that my last line there wasn’t any kind of rejection of your explanation. I was just musing which way the bias ran. And I still think this is a worthwhile post overall.
Thanks for pointing this out, you might be surprised to know that it didn’t occur to me! I’ll bear this point in mind and add some sort of disclaimer if I incorporate the quote into a top level post.