Monthly Archives: August 2012

A Liberal Education – Part II -Thinking Tools

Posted on August 30, 2012 by jrh794

The set of thinking tools that a classical liberal arts education provides is unnecessarily restricted. I attempted to  expand the list in my letter to Stanford.  (For context see my previous post.) My list has some obvious tools that are not part … Continue reading →

Posted in Curriculum, Rants, Teaching | Leave a comment

A Programming Course or a Geometry Course

Posted on August 22, 2012 by jrh794

This is a comment I wrote on this cool blog – Quomodocumque. Arguing for the replacement of a classical Euclidean plane geometry course with a beginning programming course requires attention to issues of collateral learning.  Both writing effective programs and … Continue reading →

Posted in Curriculum, Pedagogy, Teaching | Leave a comment

It is Impossible to trisect an angle of 60 degrees. So What?

Posted on August 16, 2012 by jrh794

The book New First Course in the Theory of Equations by L.E. Dickson has a proof that it is impossible to trisect a 60° angle with just a compass and unmarked straight edge.  From this fact Dickson uses this cool … Continue reading →

Posted in Cool Ideas | Leave a comment

A Liberal Education – Part I – What Did a Student Do in College?

Posted on August 13, 2012 by jrh794

I had occasion to revisit a letter I wrote to Stanford University as it was considering changing the undergraduate curriculum.  The letter can be found here and at the end of this post.  I previously commented on  it here.  This … Continue reading →

Posted in Curriculum, Rants, Teaching, Uncategorized | Leave a comment