Re:Ask HN: What are the most fundamental books on computer s...
by graemeo on Monday October 21, 2019 @12:33PM
(#21314228)
There was at least one famous mathematician that lamented this view and state of mathematics & mathematics education:
"The acceleration of the curriculum has had its cost: there has been an accompanying trend to prune away side topics. When I was in high school, for instance,
it was standard to study solid geometry and spherical geometry along with plane
geometry. These topics have long been abandoned. The shape of the mathematics
education of a typical student is tall and spindly. It reaches a certain height above
which its base can support no more growth, and there it halts or fails."
"The acceleration of the curriculum has had its cost: there has been an accompanying trend to prune away side topics. When I was in high school, for instance, it was standard to study solid geometry and spherical geometry along with plane geometry. These topics have long been abandoned. The shape of the mathematics education of a typical student is tall and spindly. It reaches a certain height above which its base can support no more growth, and there it halts or fails."
source: William Thurston - Mathematical Education https://arxiv.org/pdf/math/0503081.pdf