Re: A well kept secret?

[John Baez <john.c.baez@gmail.com>]

Dear categorists -

At 11:09 PM 12/17/2009, John Baez wrote:
>
>> I think it's premature to introduce category theory in the undergrad
>> curriculum.
>>
>
On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 2:25 PM, Ellis D. Cooper <xtalv1@netropolis.net>wrote:


>  I think there are enough very interesting simple examples of categories
> that the language and diagrams could be introduced to high school students.
>

I agree!  Just to be clear: by "premature" I wasn't trying to say that
undergraduates or even high school students are too young to learn and
profit from category theory.  I meant that there aren't enough high school
teachers who understand category theory well enough to teach it - except for
isolated experiments here and there.

Math trickles down.  Right now we need more category theory taught at the
graduate level, so someday enough professors will understand it well enough
to teach it at the undergrad level, so that eventually enough high school
teachers will know enough to teach it at the high school level.

If this seems overly optimistic, it's worth thinking about calculus, which
in Newton's day was regarded as comprehensible only by a few experts.

Best,
jb


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