Permutations and Combinations (ESSAY!)
If I were Lord of the mathematics education universe the first action I would take is to eradicate from all textbooks (and from all minds of educators) the words “Does order matter?” Thinking this way makes thinking about counting problems TOO HARD!!!!!!
Here is a brief set of notes, given as a four-step program, that shows how to solve each and every counting problem one encounters in highschool (and most elsewhere) with ease and without ever making the distinction between a “permutation” and a “combination.” (Please forget you ever heard those words! I’d eradicate them too from all text books!)