so i came home from work today and talked to luke, my son, about his maths lesson today in Gr.5. it turns out he obtained 93% on his latest mathematics geometry test. so just to challenge him, his teacher gave him a little bit of integration to learn. i do think it is great to push a kid intellectually, but this seems rather extreme. next, they will be discovering logarithms by exploring the spirals on shells:
on a side note, i have thoroughly enjoyed The White Stripes' album "Get Behind Me Satan" over the last few months. the whole album rocks my socks, but in particular i dig the tracks 'passive manipulation' and 'my doorbell'. Congratulations to the luke meister for kicking geometric butt:P (that's euclidean butt, of course).
4 comments:
Of course, strictly speaking, there's no inverse tangent of "infinity", though the limit is pi/2 as x goes to infinity. Make sure Luke knows the derivation isn't entirely rigorous.
But seriously, how appropriate can this be for 11-year-olds? Stretching indeed.
way to go luke!
hmmm, white stripes, eh?
Yeahhh Luke!
I am so proud. Here's a quote for him and you from my one (very good) book with much geometry content, Celtic Design and Ornament for Calligraphers, which I love and which is more about generating the different rectangles for historic page layouts (Durrow Gospel, Book of Kells, etc) than the title would suggest:
"IT cannot be explained, but it is a fact areas of geometrically well-defined intentional proportions are more pleasing of more beautiful to man than those of arbitrary proportions"
--Jan Tschichold
GOD bless your day!
Jenny
Hey Mr W, I was not sure this was you - you seem like our Mr W, orthodox christian teacher, dry sense of humour, living in Langley with his lovely wife Ramone and twins - but OUR Mr W delighted in stretching our kids' math skills! Heehee, well maybe not all the way to integration, but the odd quadratic equations were not out of the question!
I found you here on the "interweb" after finding a class picture from 1995-96, your (sadly) one year at Cliff Drive Elementary. You were the scholarly hero of two girls,Claire and Leslie, who still talk about your influence on them today. Claire told me the other day, "mom, its like that poster: Everything I needed to know in public school, I learned from Mr Wildeman - in GRADE 5!" Now, as they ready themselves to graduate from university next spring, you are still their Hero. Just wanted you to know that you are in our hearts - Claire's Mom
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