Recommended Books « MGTutoring.com. A Rational Perspective on Education.

April 17, 2009

On Saxon Math

Filed under: Education,Mathematics,Recommended Books — Administrator @ 9:41 pm

I’d recommend against Saxon. It’s a big mistake; I don’t know how anyone would want to use it.

It does have some (attempted) virtues: it focuses on the math, casting out the irrelevancies; it gives the student long-term practice of math concepts and methods; it presents things in bit-sized pieces.

But in their attempt to present math in bit-sized pieces, they shatter the whole of math into fragments. I could not possibly teach from Saxon books. Impossible. I would not be able to delve into an idea as it is natural to do, and as reason demands. (Only a good teacher would have the judgment to navigate the book…if the teacher was forced to use it; and the book would of necessity have to be supplemented.)

And when about two to four exercises are given for idea A, followed by about two more per section until idea A is built upon — sometimes 50 or 100 pages later! — students are not allowed to grasp and master a concept as they should, to see it in its full variety, and to carry out a critical aspect of reasoning: integrating a concept into the whole of one’s knowledge.

But Saxon “works?” Yes, it accomplishes a little — but at what price? And what is it missing out on? It leaves a lot to be desired — which I’ll address some other day.

Saxon: Don’t do it. (Unless they improve their methods some day…which is possible…but which would require a big change in the Saxon approach…)

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March 15, 2009

The Economics of Prices

Filed under: Economics,Recommended Books — Administrator @ 11:05 pm

The video “How the Price System Works,” in the series of videos in which professors of economics discuss chapters from Henry Hazlitt‘s Economics in One Lesson, is interesting. I recommend it.

In a better world, we’d be seeing things like this (and good, abstract but concretized debates and arguments about it) on television — and people would care.

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March 10, 2009

“Economics in One Lesson” by Henry Hazlitt

Filed under: Economics,Recommended Books — Administrator @ 2:28 pm

In any study of economics, Economics in One Lesson is a must-read and an important part. You can buy copies on Abebooks.com. The book is online on James’s Liberty file collection index.

The Campaign for Liberty has a good series of videos (each about 10 or 15 minutes long) in which economics professors discuss a chapter or two of the book.

The book will give you a much clearer understanding of economics, clear thinking, proper thinking, and today’s events. The book is a short, 150 (or so) pages. Or, if you disagree with the book, it will give you some serious arguments you must address.

I must say that James (of James’s Liberty file), Ron Paul, and the Libertarians want liberty without a moral or philosophic foundation. Think about that one. Would that not be like trying to practice civil or aeronautical engineering without physics or mathematics? And without a philosophy of science and mathematics?

Don’t think for a second that a “philosophy of mathematics” is abstruse and abstract and arm-chair stuff only. It has very practical implications — just as a philosophy of education makes all the difference in the world as to the nature of the education our children get, what their day-to-day activities are, and whether our children learn to reason and become independent, self-sovereign adults or whether they become tortured emotional wrecks who don’t understand the world, don’t know how, and don’t know how to make any important decisions for themselves.

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February 28, 2009

A Current Read

Filed under: History,Recommended Books — Administrator @ 12:29 pm

This book is good:

It’s a slim book: 124 pages long. But it is interesting and insightful. You cannot, by any rational standard, but respect and admire Mr. Douglas for what he made of himself in the conditions he grew up in. He rose from the lowest depths imposed upon him to self-created intellectual and moral heights. Heroic.

Mrs. Debi Ghate, through whose blog post I found out that February was the month of Mr. Douglas’ birth, recommends two speeches of Mr. Douglas: “Self-Made Men” and “The Equality of all Men Before the Law: Claimed and Defended.”

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January 31, 2009

Another Wright Brothers Anecdote

Filed under: Education,History,Recommended Books,Science — Administrator @ 6:15 pm

In the winter of 1878 the Wright Brothers wanted a sled. Most children of the time did not have a sled purchased at a store; they had a sled built by their fathers. On pp. 6 – 10 Mr. Reynolds writes:

“Why doesn’t Father build us a sled?” Wilbur blurted out.

“But Father is away, Will,” his mother said gently. “And you know how busy he is when he is at home. He has to write stories for the church paper and he has to write sermons. Now suppose we build a sled together.”

Wilber laughed. “Whoever heard of anyone’s mother building a sled?”

“You just wait,” his mother said. “We’ll build a better sled than Ed Sines has. Now get me a pencil and a piece of paper.”

“You goin’ to build a sled out of paper?” Orville asked in amazement.

“Just wait,” she repeated.

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January 30, 2009

The Little Golden Books

Filed under: Reading,Recommended Books — Administrator @ 2:38 pm

A post on the Core Knowledge blog, “Where Have You Gone, Poky Little Puppy?,” reminded me of this series of childrens’ books — i.e., of the Little Golden Books.

I read some of the books as a child, but I don’t recall which ones. I’ll have to ask family. Do you remember any of the Little Golden Books? Which ones did you read or have read to you?

I own a half dozen or so of their Western-themed books. One of the books that I like best is The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp by Monica Hill, pictures by Mel Crawford, Simon and Schuster, New York, (c) 1958. It ends in the morally uplifting fashion:

Wow. What an example to set: there are men out in the world prepared and willing to stand up to, and put out of the way, those who want to try to make others live by the false, evil maxim “might makes right.” And maybe you could be one of these good people who protect us from those who would oppress us.

Wyatt Earp was a man with moral backbone.

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January 15, 2009

The Great Industrialists: Heroes or Villains?

Filed under: History,Recommended Books — Administrator @ 4:19 pm

How many of us have been taught in history about the “Robber Barons?” Everyone here been taught about them, right? They must be evil and corrupt and unethical, right? They caused all kinds of trouble, right? They are in a class with Hitler, right?

But where did that term come from? And who decided they were “Robber Barons?” And by what standard?

Have any of us ever looked at the evidence to see whether the great American industrialists and businessmen of the 1800s and 1900s were really “Robber Barons?” What is it when we believe things about people based on hearsay — isn’t it called “gossip?” And isn’t it unjust to condemn without evidence and without a hearing?

If these questions have never been answered, or never brought up…of what account, our history education? Of what account its honesty, of what account its truth, of what account its morality?

Besides such moral issues, what would life be like if not for the “Robber Barons?” They were the people who made the Industrial Revolution, they were the people who made steel and other metals cheap and affordable, who built railroads across the US, who built canals and waterways before the railroads, who built steamboat enterprises, who made the automobile cheap and affordable, who invented new products and new means of production.

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January 9, 2009

Heroism and “Our Independence and the Constitution”

Filed under: Americana,History,Recommended Books — Administrator @ 3:10 pm

Another good scene (a third is below) from the Landmark Book Our Independence and the Constitution by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, published by Random House, New York, (c) 1950, is this one from the beginning of the book (p. 20):

Once a tiny little girl who lived on Dr. Franklin’s street looked up from the sand pile where she was playing and saw that the short, broad, stooped old doctor and the slim, tall, young delegate had stopped beside her. Smiling pleasantly, Mr. Jefferson leaned down to pat her head. “I have a little daughter at home, just about your size,” he said. “She has hair just the color of yours. Her name’s Patty. What’s yours?”

“Debby,” said the child, not much interested. People were always saying they had little girls at home “just your size.”

But after they walked on, Debby’s two big brothers came pelting out from their house to say, “That was Mr. Jefferson and old Dr. Franklin! They spoke to you. Don’t you ever forget that!”

Such hero-worship of the Founding Fathers is proper, honest, and an act of justice.

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January 8, 2009

A Respect for Ideas and “Our Independence and the Constitution”

Filed under: Americana,History,Recommended Books — Administrator @ 10:49 pm

One of my posts of yesterday reminded me of a scene in a Landmark Book that I liked: Our Independence and the Constitution by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, published by Random House, New York, (c) 1950. The book is about the American Revolution, encompassing the years from 1775 to 1787 (with a postscript set in 1840/1841), but as told from the perspective of a family — husband, wife, two boys, and one girl named Debby — who lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The story shows a deep-seated respect and admiration for ideas and reason. It is not anti-intellectual nor anti-American. The book ends like this (pp. 179-180):

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January 7, 2009

Rick Brant, Tom Swift, and More

Filed under: Americana,Art,Recommended Books — Administrator @ 9:22 pm

The Rocket’s Shadow (see earlier post of today) I would recommend. It is a good book. Other books in the “Rick Brant Science-Adventure Stories” series seemed less interesting to me. They didn’t seem as colorful and unique. Maybe I didn’t read the right books; I read only three or four in the series. The “science-adventure” genre, by the way, includes the Tom Swift and the Johnny Quest stories, I believe. (Correct me if I’m wrong.)

There is a website devoted to the Rick Brant books, where you can see all the works in the series (with a brief description of each book); buy books in the series; buy Rick Brant and Spindrift Island shirts, mugs, buttons, license plate holders, baseball caps; read evidence that Johnny Quest was inspired by Rick Brant; read a list of characters and a short description of each person; look at maps used in the series; and read articles about the books.

Maybe I have not read enough of the stories. Someone named E. Thomas Strom says, in the article “When Science Became Cool“:

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