I bought “Why the Ancient Greeks Matter” based on your recommendation but was repelled by his focus on the modern obsession with racism. Still, after writing a very negative review on Amazon, I will attempt to stomach this and search for the nuggets of historical analysis that shine past this.
Ha! I can understand that; I had a hard time with it too. I'm coming to wonder if he thought that was necessary: even saying there was a "Greek miracle" seems to be seen as utterly racist in some quarters, so he need to flour his anti-racist feathers just to get a hearing from some people that he wants to reach. (I suspect that quite a few of us have been in a similar situation before.)
Can I actually recommend watching an interview he did recently, before you try the book again? I just found it today, or I would have included it in the post: https://youtu.be/qHCpJGxrE8I?si=S-lMBpkth9aK-5zT
Thanks for this, Brandon. I really enjoyed and learned from the video you linked. I too had suspected that, in his book, Reviel Netz was trying to debate the “anti-racists” who have co-opted many history departments. However, I’m not sure that these sorts of ideologues are even open to debate and so also unsure that the endeavour is worthwhile. In the video interview, however, it seems to me that Netz is addressing a different audience in that he doesn’t even mention racism once. My key takeaway is that learning only happens through the (rational) conflict of ideas through debate.
You can go through some of these modes to get to socialization if you're doing them in a group. Competitions introduce you to competitors, or to make it more central you can put people on a team. For students who are demotivated by competition, you can have people share their reasoning or methodology for solving certain problems and then compare with others - Dan Meyer talks about this sometimes on his blog. If motivation comes not so much through peers but by connection with the teacher, you can show your own personal love for the topic. Humanized stories are another possible vector, showing how much the math mattered to the people who were pursuing it.
I bought “Why the Ancient Greeks Matter” based on your recommendation but was repelled by his focus on the modern obsession with racism. Still, after writing a very negative review on Amazon, I will attempt to stomach this and search for the nuggets of historical analysis that shine past this.
Ha! I can understand that; I had a hard time with it too. I'm coming to wonder if he thought that was necessary: even saying there was a "Greek miracle" seems to be seen as utterly racist in some quarters, so he need to flour his anti-racist feathers just to get a hearing from some people that he wants to reach. (I suspect that quite a few of us have been in a similar situation before.)
Can I actually recommend watching an interview he did recently, before you try the book again? I just found it today, or I would have included it in the post: https://youtu.be/qHCpJGxrE8I?si=S-lMBpkth9aK-5zT
Thanks for this, Brandon. I really enjoyed and learned from the video you linked. I too had suspected that, in his book, Reviel Netz was trying to debate the “anti-racists” who have co-opted many history departments. However, I’m not sure that these sorts of ideologues are even open to debate and so also unsure that the endeavour is worthwhile. In the video interview, however, it seems to me that Netz is addressing a different audience in that he doesn’t even mention racism once. My key takeaway is that learning only happens through the (rational) conflict of ideas through debate.
You can go through some of these modes to get to socialization if you're doing them in a group. Competitions introduce you to competitors, or to make it more central you can put people on a team. For students who are demotivated by competition, you can have people share their reasoning or methodology for solving certain problems and then compare with others - Dan Meyer talks about this sometimes on his blog. If motivation comes not so much through peers but by connection with the teacher, you can show your own personal love for the topic. Humanized stories are another possible vector, showing how much the math mattered to the people who were pursuing it.