[ExI] mersenne primes again

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of Mike Dougherty
> Subject: Re: [ExI] mersenne primes again
> 
> On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 11:26 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> > Even if the statistics are done correctly, they are often, if not 
> > usually, misleading.  That discipline is so filled with 
> shortcuts, the 
> > results are more often useless than otherwise.
> 
> So what are you proposing as an alternative/replacement?

Dunno.  But I see plenty of reason for hope.  Currently our math curriculum
is self limited by the traditional teaching paradigms of one prole lecturing
in front of thirty proles, and having all the problems solvable in a few
minutes, so that one's competence can be proven in a one-hour written test.
It leads directly to the kinds of problems that are unlike real-world
problems, and solution methods that are filled with algoritmic "thinking"
and over-simplifications.

In the future, we need not be bound by that method learning, nor that method
of proving competence.  We can imagine creating software that frees us from
both these problems.  I am seeing a lot of promise in my three-yr-old son's
educational software, specifically a program called "JumpStart" with a lot
of extremely good educational games.

spike