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Comment by j2kun | Hacker News Reader

I'm very surprised that we don't teach basic graph theory in <= high school education. It has such a nice, gradual slope from puzzles and pictures to proofs, algorithms, and all sorts of science. I've done activities/lectures on the topic to all levels of high school (some with notes [1]), and it is routine to see amazement and engagement. And Hamkins shows it can go all the way down to eight-year-olds. It seems like a win-win to include it in every math teacher's repertoire. It can go as deep as the students want it to go.

[1]: http://jeremykun.com/2011/06/26/teaching-mathematics-graph-t...

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I found your site through HN a while back, and since then I've sent a link to your site to pretty much every math/STEM teacher I meet (and I encounter quite a lot of them). Many of them have specifically mentioned to me what a great resource you've created for teachers and how you got their kids excited about math. I hope you know that your work is having a tremendous impact on math education and that impact will grow exponentially.

Wow, what a nice testimonial!

Wow, I really appreciate that, thank you.

I just wish I had more opportunities (and time, money) to try more things in classrooms.

Your write up on EC and tensors, I enjoyed it a lot. Thanks for the excellent effort!

Agree, This applies to pretty much every topic. If you make it relevant, interesting and create a safe environment where mistakes are ok a lot can be taught to kids.

I was fascinated as a kid from various types of sailor knots. I was in the air modelling, then computer club, and our neighbours were the young sailors, but I've never got into it.

But I know kids around me were fascinated by them too (it could be that we were after all living in a fishing/sea town with lots of big ships, etc.).

But then even for girls (knitting, or other activities) - there is something about graph theory to be found there. Just wondering...

Or the graphs of social relations.

>I'm very surprised that we don't teach basic graph theory in <= high school education

Not US, but I learned graph theory in HS, so it is done in some countries (CS class though, not maths)

How did it look like?

I faintly remember that we did `use` graph theory in our HS assignments, but haven't actually touched hypothesis or proofs, that I now associate with it.

I remember we wrote programs to higlight a graphs skelet, find shortest path, search for components, e.t.c.

Discussions on correctness and efficiency were informal.

> And Hamkins shows it can go all the way down to eight-year-olds.

At the bottom he mentions his previous visit - Math for seven-year-olds: graph coloring, chromatic numbers, and Eulerian paths and circuits http://jdh.hamkins.org/math-for-seven-year-olds-graph-colori...

I had like one grade where it was taught, but I mean, it would've been so much cooler to talk of things in Matrix-algebra land in terms of graphs.

I think Bourbakian formalism should be kept where it belongs : > upper undergrad. Math should be about pictures and things. Also see, http://pauli.uni-muenster.de/~munsteg/arnold.html

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