By Silviu Teleman
One of the most important problems facing the American School today is the Instruction of Calculus. We deliberately use the word “instruction” and not “teaching” because teachers are now disappearing, being replaced by “instructors”.
The main problem with Calculus originates, in its difficulty; one has to find simpler forms of presenting its main ideas, which should be more accessible and which should satisfy better the needs of the students.
This desire –we could say a democratic desire, because it is required by the society atlarge– was understood by the Calculus Instructing Community, which consequently organized into panels, committees, commissions and consortiums, who were given the task to produce the “Calculus Reform”. It happened that the historical moment was as favorable as possible for the Calculus Instructing Community, due to the appearance of the High Speed Electronic Calculators. Had the task of “Reforming Calculus” fallen on the brows (shoulders) of the Calculus Instructors sixty years ago, they could not have produced a table of values such as
the following… Continued below.