When my second youngest brother was about 9, he came to me with a math question.
In school he was doing problems like:
9 + _ = 15
Of course, you're supposed to fill in the blank spot with 6.
He came to me and asked if there was a solution to a problem like this:
_ + _ = 15
I was stunned. I told him, yes, there's a solution, and it's a line.
That was the beginning of teaching him analytic geometry, and some calculus, while he was still in elementary school. I couldn't actually get him interested in the solving algebraic manipulation problems. But he loved graphing the solutions to equations.
He went on to get a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering, specializing in control theory. Oh, and he wrote a textbook on that abstruse but practical topic.
I tutored my own children in math, too. I never got them interested in calculus while they were in elementary school. But my son is taking a professional path eerily similar to my brother - he's an aeronautical engineer publishing research in control theory.
I don't *think* my brother had that big an impact on my son.
What can this mean?
Is there a control theory gene?
Or does it seem
More likely I'm a carrier of the meme?
2 comments:
Oo! I love this post.. and the rhymes toward the end. A family of high achievers! That's pretty neat.
Thanks, Ergo. By the way, your review of "Ayn Rand at 100" was very interesting. Speaking of Roderick Long, I have the impression that Westerners who dabble in Indian philosophy often don't have any sense of perspective on it.
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