The Late
Professor Morris Kline
Obituary:
The New York Times
Lecture:
Pea Soup, Tripe and
Mathematics
The Book:
Why Johnny Can't Add
Up to Chapter
2:
Preface, plus a
taste.
Chapter 3: The Origin of the
Modern Mathematics Movement.
Chapter 4: The Deductive Approach
to Mathematics.
Chapter 5 &
Chapter 6: Rigor & The Language of
Mathematics
Chapter 7 &
Chapter 8: Mathematics for
Mathematics' Sake & The New Contents of the New Mathematics
Chapter 9:
The Testimony of Tests.
Chapter 10:
The Deeper Reasons for the New Mathematics.
Chapter 11:
The Proper Direction for Reform.
The Book:
Why The Professor Can't Teach
Up to Chapter 2
Chapter 3:
The Nature of Current Mathematical
Research.
Chapter 4: The Conflict Between Research and teaching.
Chapter 5: The Debasement of Undergraduate Teaching.
Chapter 6: The Illiberal Mathematician.
Chapter 7: The Undefiled Mathematician.
Chapter 8: The Misdirection of High School Education.
Chapter 9: Some Light at the Beginning of the Tunnel - Elementary
Education.
Chapter 10: Follies of the Marketplace: A Tirade on Tents.
Chapter 11: Some Mandatory Reforms.
Bibliography
and Index
Important Note!
The title of this book, which seems to cast aspersions on the competence
of professors, is misleading. The author submitted a dozen or so more
appropriate titles but the publisher was intransigent. Obviously he wished
to trade on the name of his earlier publication
Why Johnny Can't Add, which
had wide recognition.
As the author's wife and sometime secretary, I can testify
that Morris Kline was keenly unhappy with the publisher's choice. This
book is not an attack on professors but is rather a wide-ranging critique
of undergraduate education. Indeed an appropriate, less jazzy title would
have been A Critique Of Undergraduate
Education.
Helen M. Kline
Books by Morris
Kline
Introduction to Mathematics
(co-author), Houghton Mifflin Co., 1937
The Theory of Electromagnetic Waves (editor), Inter-science Publishers,
1951
Mathematics in Western Culture, Oxford University Press, 1953
Mathematics and the Physical World, T. Y. Crowell Co., 1959
Mathematics, A Cultural Approach, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1962
Electromagnetic Theory and Geometrical Optics, John Wiley and Sons, 1965
Calculus, An intuitive and Physical Approach, John Wiley and Sons, 1967
Mathematics for Liberal Arts, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1967
Mathematics in the Modern World (editor), W. H. Freeman and Co., 1968
Mathematical Thought From Ancient to Modern Times, Oxford University
Press, 1972
Why Johnny Can't Add: The Failure of the New Mathematics, St. Martin's
Press, 1973
Mark
Alder: I am very grateful for the kind permission of Professor Kline's
widow, Mrs Helen Kline to use the material on this section of
my website.
Copyright © Helen M. Kline &
Mark Alder 2000
This version 22nd March
2001