Warp wrote:
> The "new methods" are very limited

You may be speaking about different "new methods".

In the USA, there's "new math", introduced a few decades ago. It gets 
rid of "three apples plus two apples is five apples", and instead tries 
to teach arithmetic based on formalism instead of "common sense".

This has the benefit that you actually learn the math instead of just 
the algorithms, and the drawback that it's harder to understand how to 
apply it to every-day situations.

It sounds like Warp is talking about a system of shortcuts rather than 
something more comprehensive.

(And the running joke here is the parent's can't help the children with 
the "new math" because they don't understand it. That is, they know the 
arithmetic, but not the math behind it that makes it work.)

I know that I was in graduate school before anyone actually explained 
what a formal system really is and how it works and why it matters. I 
did years of calculus and statistics and such, without ever being taught 
the fundamentals of anything like proof theory, rewrite rules, lambda 
calculus, etc.  I personally think those latter are much more useful to 
learn than (say) partial integrals or some such.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
  Helpful housekeeping hints:
   Check your feather pillows for holes
    before putting them in the washing machine.

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