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For
example,
<<the x's and the
y's, they represent nothing, it's completely
abstract.>>
<<you you have to
copy out theorems that are completely
idiotic.>>
Another
asserts:
<<1 don't know what
is really concrete. You calculate figures, you do
anything! In the end, anything ... to me that seems
nonsensical. For me, figures, even when 1 wasn't
particularly good with them at primary school, 1
still found them. pleasing because they were
something concrete, something that was plain for
all to see, you calculated weights, measures. But
here, now, we do calculations with letters. We have
never learnt to say a times b makes c; I don't know
if it is that! I don't know, in the end it seems
absurd to me ... I don't remember anything, it is
precisely because it is absurd that 1 don't
remember anything.>>
So completely absurd that
you ask yourself whether teachers believe in it all
themselves.
<<You, seeing as you
are a maths teacher, do you really believe in all
these theorems?>>
If all
mathematical signs become meaningless (or
absurd), it is because they no longer have any
apparent personal. relevance. Repression permits
a retreat from all investment of energy, for
reasons which can be diverse but which are most
often used as a way of assessing - sometimes in
rather doubtfül. fashion - the personality
of the student. This poses the question of
whether it is justifiable that mathematics be
compulsory for all. Is it not, at times, even
rather dangerous to demand success in this
subject "at any price"? It should be noted here
that mathematical reeducation is not a return.
to apprenticeship; the whole personality is
involved.
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