This is a Mathematics textbook designed to be used by children beginning at the age of 6 (or whenever they can first read simple english). I am attempting to construct a set of lessons which will describe in explicit detail the manner in which the symbols and syntax of numbers, arithmetic, algebra, and various other mathematical objects are related to their semantic content.
In particular, I am trying to address what I see as a number of problems in the way that mathematics is taught from kintergarden alllll the way up to university. I expect that as a math student at MIT I experienced essentially all of the same difficulties that children experience. I asked questions such as:
Why am I learning this?
What does this mean?
Why don't I understand this?
Is there a more general set of principles?
I also got confused in a lot of the same ways that I expect children get confused. For instance, I always have to ask:
What does this symbol mean?
Why does this symbol look like that symbol?
Is this an abstraction of a concept? A generalization? A meta-concept?
I am a graduate from the Masschusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Mathematics with Computer Science. I am interested in pedagogy, mathematics, and children. Therefore, I'm writing this book.
I have no credentials as a child psychologist. I don't know that many children. I don't work with children.
I have the firm belief that the way in which I learn is the way in which you learn is the way in which every person learns. I learn every day. I hope to bring my experience to bear on the very difficult task of teaching our children how to think systematically.