Re: down with fractions

[bonnie.blustein@att.net]

Does this also mean no rational expressions, rational functions, etc until "calculus"?  That doesn't seem right.

-------------- Original message from Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>: -------------- 


> Ive been arguing this for years! 
> 
> Math professor's book will argue against teaching fractions, long division. 
> 
> USA Today (1/24, 11D, Milford) reports, "A few years ago, Dennis DeTurck, an 
> award-winning professor of mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, 
> stood at an outdoor podium on campus and proclaimed, 'Down with fractions!'" 
> DeTurck, in a contribution to a 60-second lecture series, argued that 
> fractions were "useful for by-hand calculation. But in this digital age, 
> they're as obsolete as Roman numerals are." The speech was posted online, 
> triggering a "firestorm" of discussion among educators. Now, DeTurck is 
> scheduled to publish a book that argues for "the teaching of decimals over 
> fractions to elementary school students." He also criticizes "long division, 
> the calculation of square roots and by-hand multiplication of long numbers." 
> DeTurck argues that "the study of fractions should be delayed until it can be 
> understood, perhaps after a student learns calculus." 
> 
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