>Hi Bill, Nate, and everybody--
>
>Thanks, Bill, for the useful example. It reminds my Jay Lemke
book "Talking
>science." I wonder if someone will write similar book "Talking
math." One
>brief comment that I think can be applied to some Jay's
examples.
>
>If you put this example in a non-school context, it seems to be
very strange
>that adult talks about fractions (1/4) because it doesn't seem
to have any
>pragmatic value (the hole for the flowers should be filled with
dirt -- who
>cares that it is 71/4 inches?!). Jay made a very good point in
his book
>that the school use of science (and we can add math) is very
different from
>both everyday use and professional use. It is a special type
of discourse.
>Like Nate, I have a concern that this type of discourse may
begin and end at
>school.
>
>What do you think?
>
A couple of weeks ago, me and my son went with grandpa to to
visit his machine shop. He is what Newman and Holzman would
call a "tool maker" in that to do a specific task he has to a
design a tool specifically for that task. My son listened
attentively while he was showed how to set the computer to 1/100
then 1/1000 of an inch so a tool could be created. While as
with Bill's example he doubtfully internalized any fraction
knowledge, there was definately some appropriation going on. He
was given and setting in which fractions had a context. It was
not important that he or grandpa knew how to add, subtract,
divide, or multiply the fractions, the computer could do that.
What was important as with Bill's example was that fractions is
a form of measurement that is important when one needs to be
very precise.
Nate