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A Question of Access

Part 2: Chapter 12

Social enlightenment about the nature of mathematical thought

August 16, 2002

Purpose of the chapter

The most important purpose of this chapter is NOT over state the criticism of the current educational system.

There is no criticism, but rather a description of what is.

The original text for “A Question of Access” was originally written as an aggressive attack on the Colleges of Education and the elitism of the community of mathematicians. This original material was re-written several times in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Some of the history of this re-write will be developed. The tome of the chapter will be as a narrative of the author’s reflections, and his errors in judgment made regarding the “intention” of the educational system.

The chapter will be a hard one. But the strategy is to have this as a short novel, perhaps one that uses metaphor rather that directly stating what the author knows. The purpose is to NOT be authoritative, but to allow the learner to come to a resolution of personal doubt regarding his/her image of self.

The author’s own work and scholarship on the “image of self” is developed in the context of Bandura’s work on self efficacy, Maturana and Verala’s work on autopoietic systems (“Tree of Knowledge”, 1989), Karl Pribram’s theory of social organization as reflected in brain function (Languages of the Brain – 1971; Brain and Perception – 1991), and the Prueitt Process Compartment Hypothesis.

These notes are formative towards Prueitt’s new book on learning theory.

We expect that the book will be developed over the next four months.

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