[aout]

There is something quite interesting about the form of the article. While Mr Minsky talks about teaching using the "deck of cards method" and why it might not be the best approach if the child wants to advance to more complex subjects he also wants us to learn about his experiments (which are quite good!).

Having read the article I find it well written but WHAT THE HELL?! Why doesn't he use pictures? simple diagrams? "sexy" stuff?

It seems that I'm having the same problem as the child is having: the form does suck and it discourages me from reading a boatload of articles like this one. If the presentation of the subject was better I could read 10 more and maybe, finally, take an interest in "teaching methods" that would lead me to being curious and accept any "bad form" of content :)

[sergiosgc]

He doesn't use pictures because neither his target audience nor the subject matter require pictures.

His target audience is composed of people who are interested in mathematics teaching (parents, teachers and such). He expects (correctly in my opinion) that these have handled and can handle long texts.

The subject matter is an opinion piece without much underlying data, so graphical representation is not required.

The writing style must be adapted to circumstances. Increases in picture density do not monotonically increase text appeal.

[aout]

I do agree with you. Preaching the converted doesn't require that much effort.

Now to nuance a bit this over-simplistic sentence I just written: do you think I am interested in mathematics teaching? I did read the article anyway so you might be right but I felt a bit overwhelmed by all this "jargon" when an example would have been so simple to understand.

After all, Mr Minsky was a teacher, certainly a mighty good one :)

[chriscappuccio]

Amen.