I received a copy of "Exploding the Number Myth" today from one of our former DSGB members who would like someone to review her book.
She writes:
Dear Mr. Ferguson,
Twenty years ago when Arthur Wiilock was the Information Secretary, I was a member of the Dozenal Society for a few months.
I left because I felt that the problem some children had was due to the whole system and not just the base. I believe that the 'horse is limping' because it has a pebble in its shoe. The cure is not to change the shape of the pebble but to remove it altogether from elementary mathematics.
Most children can see that 1+1 = 11 but if this is logical, then their brain (inherited hard drive) refuses to let them agree that if 1+1 = 11 = 1+1 then 11 also equals 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1 (decimal base) or 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1 (dozenal base) or even 1+1+1 (binary base). It is the symbols 10 followed by 11 that cause the problem. ‘0’ has a place but not in the Infant Class.
I know that your members can think outside the box, I only hope that some of them are prepared to think outside the circle.
If you (or one of your members) are willing to read and comment on the enclosed book I would be very grateful. The book is aimed at the 'failed mathematicians' who, I believe, are only 'lost ones'.
There is also an alternative way of displaying fractions and an alternative sieve for Prime Numbers which I would like to pass onto anyone who is interested in alternatives.
Would someone like to volunteer to review the book, please?
Not an offer to review a book, but a comment on the problem of innumeracy. The way you begin to address innumeracy is to teach children their numbers right along with their letters, and to begin the numbers with zero, then, when they've learned all the digits, before they learn any mathematical operations, teach them the concept of place-value and numeric base. Once these concepts are all in place, then, one can proceed to the fundamental operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, involution, evolution) and the axioms that govern mathematical operations.
No-one interested?
Shall I scan a chapter and post it here?