[snowman]

TOTAL BS. Thats exactly why we lag behind all those other nations in math. The people that made the US famuous were brought up under the exact same system you say is bad. What we are doing now is a disservice to everyone involved. Forget the super math types, they will suceed in spite of whatever system we use, its the majority that need help. One of my close relatives, Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer, was a math wiz, I suspect he would disagree with you. Todays kids are wired exactly like the kids of yesterday were. When you understand the math of Newton, Brouwer, Einstein, Bohr,and the like you are just coming up to the last part of the 19th century. Once you have mastered that you can talk about the 2oth century. Brouwer is considered to be the father, or one of the fathers, of modern math.