Erector/Meccano sets

With the youngest munchkin showing a distinct interest in tools and building things we picked up a couple of erector sets at the store this weekend. We picked up a set for the kid, and since I had never had Erector sets before one for me as well.

I won’t know about smaller set until after Christmas, but my set is really complicated. It makes Lego looked like it was designed for toddlers. It’s actually more than I’m mentally prepared to take on at the moment. I’m not sure where they found an 8-year-old to attempt it, but I want that kid working on my car in a couple of years.

The Importance of Mathematics in Education

Dr. Robert H. Lewis of Fordham University has written a great article on the importance of mathematics in education. Here’s a quick excerpt,

Education is not about any particular machine, system, skill, or job. Education is both broader and deeper than training. An education is a deep, complex, and organic representation of reality in the student’s mind. It is an image of reality made of concepts, not facts. Concepts that relate to each other, reinforce each other, and illuminate each other. Yet the education is more even than that because it is organic: it will live, evolve, and adapt throughout life.

Read the whole article here.

(via Slashdot)