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!)

Pamphlet on Counting

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    QUADRATICS, Permutations and Combinations, EXPLODING DOTS, and more!

    Written for educators - and their students too! - this website, slowly growing, takes all the content Tanton has developed in his books, videos, and workshops, and organizes it into short, self-contained, and complete, curriculum units proving that mathematics, at all points of the school curriculum, can be joyous, fresh, innovative, rich, deep-thinking, and devoid of any rote doing! Let's teach generations of students to be self-reliant thinkers, willing to flail and to use their common sense to "nut their way" through challenges, to assess and judge results, and to adjust actions to find success. (Great life skills!)

    CHECK OUT: www.gdaymath.com

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