Patrick and Debbie's Math Class

Chapter 5 of Brain Bombardment announced the beginning of an ambitious long-term undertaking. Despite no formal mathematical education beyond that of high school, I stated my desire to obtain a math Ph.D. My self-imposed deadline is June 23, 2022, my 70th birthday. That will be a full 20 years after my announcement.

    (The Day Countdown)

Since I have to make a living between now and whenever, a return to school may not be possible for the next several years. I now study math a little over an hour a day, on the average. If my math development shows promise after another few months, I'll gradually increase the study time.

The high school mathematics texts that I have seen are arranged according to topic; e.g., one chapter on exponents, one chapter on probability, one chapter on geometry, etc. The arrangement appears logical and well ordered, but I have seen two problems with it:

1. If a book teaches probability (for example) during the first few weeks of the school year, then moves on to other subjects for the remainder of the year, the students will forget what they have learned about probability. They will need extra time for review.
2. When a book presents too much information on one topic at once, the result will be information overload. Then the students will need even more time to review.

For certain subjects, I prefer a cyclical approach to learning. Readers of Brain Bombardment already know that the Russians use this approach to teach chess. The student learns a topic, then learns other topics, and then returns to the first topic to learn it in greater depth. With careful planning, Topic 3 may combine the material from Topic 1 and Topic 2. The student learns new material while reviewing at the same time. That is the way I want to learn and teach here; it is my game plan.

Debbie and I invite you to come along for the ride. We'll begin with high school algebra and proceed from there. You will be learning it with us. We assume only a firm grasp of basic arithmetic, plus a few basic concepts of elementary algebra. Our Table of Contents is tiny now; we hope to expand it one page at a time.

Table of Contents