Instead of a dominant language, with built-in
experiences more and more alien to the vast majority of
students, the ability to cope with many sign systems, with many
languages, to articulate them, adapt them to the circumstance,
and share them as much as the circumstance requires, should
become the goal. Some would counter, "This was attempted with
courses labeled modern math and resulted in no one's
understanding it, or even simple math." There is some truth in
this. The mathematically gifted had no problem in learning the
new math. Students who were under the influence of literate
reasoning had problems. What we need to do is to keep the mind
open, allow for as much accumulation as necessary, and for
discarding, if new experiences demand an open mind and freedom
from previous assumptions. Some students will settle (in math or
in other subjects) for predominantly visual signs, others for
sounds, some for words, for rhythm, for any of the forms through
which human intelligence comes to expression. Interactive
multimedia are only some of the many media available. Other
possibilities are yet to emerge. The Internet is in the same
situation. A framework for individual selection, for tapping into
learning resources and using them to the degree desired and
acknowledged as necessary by praxis, would be the way to go. Not
only literacy, in the accepted sense, but mathematical literacy,
biological, chemical, or engineering literacy, and visual
thinking and expression should be given equal consideration.
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