Is there anyone here?

Barry Gray

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Jul 12, 2014, 4:31:55 AM7/12/14

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I subscribed to this Newsgroup a few days ago, to post a question about
maths education, but no one replied, in fact no one has posted anything
at all.

Is there anyone there at all?

--
Barry Gray
A child is a fire to be lit not a vessel to be filled

Stan Brown

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Jul 12, 2014, 12:57:54 PM7/12/14

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On Sat, 12 Jul 2014 09:31:55 +0100, Barry Gray wrote:
>
> I subscribed to this Newsgroup a few days ago, to post a question about
> maths education, but no one replied, in fact no one has posted anything
> at all.
>
> Is there anyone there at all?

I see no indication that you actually posted an article a few days
ago. Perhaps that's why no one has answered?

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

Ken Pledger

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Jul 13, 2014, 4:55:03 PM7/13/14

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In article <MPG.2e2b3319a...@news.individual.net>,

Stan Brown <the_sta...@fastmail.fm> wrote:

> On Sat, 12 Jul 2014 09:31:55 +0100, Barry Gray wrote:
> >
> > I subscribed to this Newsgroup a few days ago, to post a question about
> > maths education, but no one replied, in fact no one has posted anything
> > at all.
> >
> > Is there anyone there at all?
>
> I see no indication that you actually posted an article a few days
> ago. Perhaps that's why no one has answered?

Yes he did. I didn't answer because I don't know the U.K. school
practices that he was asking about. His message is below.

Ken Pledger.

> When I was at school, more than sixty yeas ago, we were taught to write
> three hundred and twenty four thousand nine hundred and sixty seven as
> 324,967 but when, more than forty years ago, I retrained as a teacher
> after a period in industry, we were taught to write it as 324 967 and
> this is how I have been teaching it ever since.
>
> Since I retired from full-time teaching I have been doing private
> tuition, and until now all my students, from many different schools,
> have been happy with this. Very recently however one student has told me
> that they are being taught 324,967
>
> I do not think there has ever been international agreement about this,
> but is there any agreement in English, Welsh, Northern Irish or Scottish
> schools?

Stan Brown

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Jul 13, 2014, 6:13:57 PM7/13/14

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Thanks, Ken. Now instead of not posting because it didn't reach me,
I can not post because I don't know the answer either. :-)

Andy Walker

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Jul 13, 2014, 9:24:09 PM7/13/14

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On 13/07/14 23:13, Stan Brown wrote:
>>> I see no indication that you actually posted an article a few days
>>> ago. Perhaps that's why no one has answered?

[Ken:]

>> Yes he did. I didn't answer because I don't know the U.K. school
>> practices that he was asking about. His message is below.

[Barry:]

>>> When I was at school, more than sixty yeas ago, we were taught to write
>>> three hundred and twenty four thousand nine hundred and sixty seven as

>>> 324,967 but [...]

>>> I do not think there has ever been international agreement about this,

There is certainly no international agreement about this; after
all, we use comma as punctuation within numbers and full stop as decimal
point, whereas the French use full stop as punctuation and comma as
decimal point. So even if there should happen to be an international
standard, there is no general agreement with it.

>>> but is there any agreement in English, Welsh, Northern Irish or Scottish
>>> schools?

It wouldn't surprise me to discover that some exam board or
revision guide or similar has decided to standardise its representation
of numbers, or even that whatever-the-DfES-is-called-this-week has
promulgated some guidance. A serving maths teacher would probably
know. But if so, it certainly hasn't [and probably shouldn't have]
penetrated the Real World. We surely don't want telephone numbers
punctuated as "01,234,567,890" instead of "0123 456 7890", nor times
as "1,230" instead of "1230", "12:30" or similar. Nor do we want
children telling their parents "Teacher says you shouldn't write
numbers like that". Spreadsheet packages that try to set standards
in this area generally make a mess of it -- ISTR some relevant articles
in "comp.risks" a while back.

Basically, the important thing is that when we write numbers,
the reader should know which number is intended. Whether this is
achieved by commas, or other punctuation, or by spacing, or [eg] by
clear tabulation of results is unimportant. It's easy to find real-
world examples of all of these, so clearly there is no agreement in
the adult world. Whether there is in schools is another matter;
they get daft notions sometimes ....

> Thanks, Ken. Now instead of not posting because it didn't reach me,
> I can not post because I don't know the answer either. :-)

Not knowing the answer doesn't usually stop people answering!

--
Andy Walker,
Nottingham.

Barry Gray

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Jul 14, 2014, 6:54:23 AM7/14/14

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Thanks everyone. This is exactly what I had thought, and hoped.

Glad to know this Newsgroup is active and supportive. Over the years
lots of newsgroups I have subscribed to have just died or been taken
over by trolls.