Re: [IAEP] [support-gang] SD Card Expert Needed

2011-08-25 Thread Bert Freudenberg

On 25.08.2011, at 04:27, Mikus Grinbergs wrote:

 When you use an activity from an USB or SD card..The activity is copied to 
 the system.
 
 Not in my experience.
 
 I've been using Activities from an SD card for four years now, and Sugar has 
 NEVER copied those to the system (ie, to the flash memory).

If you click a .xo bundle, Sugar *will* unpack it into ~/Activities.

If you unpack it onto an SD Card yourself, Sugar will not see it. Unless ...

 [Before I start Sugar, I've set up pointers (in /home/olpc/Activities) to 
 where the (unpacked) activity files actually reside.]

... you manually do this step to make Sugar think it was installed in a regular 
way.

In any case, the activity would still write to the Journal unless it has 
specific support to write somewhere else.

- Bert -


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[IAEP] Activities needing packaging?

2011-08-25 Thread Frederick Grose
Forwarded conversation
Subject: [SoaS] want to contribute to Sugar on a Stick - introducing myself


From: *Kalpa Welivitigoda* callka...@gmail.com
Date: Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 9:03 AM
To: s...@lists.sugarlabs.org


Hi,

I am Kalpa Welivitigoda from Sri Lanka.

I was searching for a FOSS project to contribute on and I came across
Sugar on a Stick through OpenHatch.

I am involved in Fedora Project [1] , Mozilla Firefox and have
contributed in lokalizing  some of the other projects including
OpenOffice, pidgin, GNOME etc. Apart from them I am active on Hanthana
Linux [2], a local project. Hanthana is a remix of Fedora. I attend
FOSS related events and talk about FOSS to make the public aware. I
currently write to two local e-magazines (FOSS User [3] and Hanthana+,
yet to be released.)

In technical aspects, I am familiar with java and python and uses
Fedora as my primary and only OS. In Sugar on a Stick I hope to make
use of my python knowledge and learn more on python. I also wish to
package applications and actually I have done one related to fedora
Sound SIG [4]. But it is not upstream yet since there are some more
sound tracks to be added. I wish to learn further on packaging also.

So at the moment the ways I can contribute to Sugar on a Stick will be with;
1) testing
2) fixing bugs or adding new features to existing activities (depend
on the level of python expertise needed)
3) packaging activities for fedora

I am reading for my BSc of Eng degree major in Electrical Engineering
and I wish to contribute to FOSS in my leisure time.

My irc nickname is callkalpa

Please help me get started!

[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Callkalpa
[2] http://www.hanthana.org
[3] http://www.fossuser.lk
[4] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/Sound

--
Best Regards,

Kalpa Pathum Welivitigoda
http://about.me/callkalpa
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From: *Frederick Grose* fgr...@gmail.com
Date: Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 9:41 PM
To: s...@lists.sugarlabs.org


Welcome Kalpa!

The Sugar on a Stick project,
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick, truly
needs new contributors.

Peter Robinson, https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Pbrobinson, is the lead
contributor.
See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/Sugar_0.94.

He is very busy with packaging support, and seems now to be in the critical
path for the new OLPC XO-1.75 ARM builds,
http://www.mail-archive.com/devel@lists.laptop.org/msg27817.html.

He will likely respond with ways you might assist.

Thomas Gilliard, http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Satellit, is an active
tester. See http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Community/Distributions/Fedora-SoaS
.

I, http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:FGrose, have been working on Sugar
Clone,
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick/Sugar_Clone

Sebastian Sziallas, https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Sdz, and Mel Chua,
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Mchua, have moved on to other projects.

Packaging Sugar Activities, https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Sugar_Activities,
in Fedora is one need.  Mel and Sebastian prepared a classroom last year,
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Classroom/Packaging_Sugar_Activities, to
help.

Sugar also has a rich set of Activities for music and sound processing,
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Tam_Tam.

Art Hunkins, http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/user/652, is active
developing a new SamplePlay Activity,
http://www.mail-archive.com/sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org/msg22396.html

You might also collaborate with David
Schönsteinhttp://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Dschonstein,
who prepared,
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Development_Team/Sound
a while back.

I hope you find some ways to contribute, even by asking more questions.

 Best wishes,  --Fred




--
From: *Kalpa Welivitigoda* callka...@gmail.com
Date: Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 4:36 AM
To: Frederick Grose fgr...@gmail.com
Cc: s...@lists.sugarlabs.org


Thanks a lot Fredrick for your informative reply.
I'll go through the class logs on packing sugar activities for Fedora
and hope to contribute by packaging the activities that are not yet
packaged.


--

--
From: *Thomas C Gilliard* satel...@bendbroadband.com
Date: Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 5:00 AM
To: callka...@gmail.com
Cc: Development of live Sugar distributions s...@lists.sugarlabs.org,
Frederick Grose fgr...@gmail.com


**
Hi;
Also look at :
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Creation_Kit
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Creation_Kit#Floss_Manuals

 http://www.archive.org/details/MakeYourOwnSugarActivities

http://en.flossmanuals.net/

Thanks for helping...

Tom Gilliard
satellit_on #sugar freenode IRC

--
From: *Kalpa Welivitigoda* callka...@gmail.com
Date: Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 5:19 AM
To: Thomas C Gilliard satel...@bendbroadband.com
Cc: Development of live Sugar distributions s...@lists.sugarlabs.org,
Frederick Grose 

Re: [IAEP] [support-gang] SD Card Expert Needed

2011-08-25 Thread Mikus Grinbergs

Kevin Gordon wrote

Talk to Mikus.  He is my muse on this stuff.


On multiple occasions (including this one) when Caryl has posted a 
question to which I have previously developed an answer, I've offered 
Caryl my help.  None of my offers have gotten a response.


mikus


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Re: [IAEP] [support-gang] SD Card Expert Needed

2011-08-25 Thread Kevin Mark
On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 10:52:23AM -0500, Mikus Grinbergs wrote:
 Kevin Gordon wrote
 Talk to Mikus.  He is my muse on this stuff.
 
 On multiple occasions (including this one) when Caryl has posted a
 question to which I have previously developed an answer, I've
 offered Caryl my help.  None of my offers have gotten a response.
 
 mikus

In the age of email boxes brimming with stuff to read, it can get lost in the
shuffle or perhaps it was eatten by a rogue spam filter :) 

-- 
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| : :' : The Universal OS| mysite.verizon.net/kevin.mark/.|
| `. `'   http://www.debian.org/.| http://counter.li.org [#238656]|
|___`-Unless I ask to be CCd,.assume I am subscribed._|

An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it.
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[IAEP] food for thought...

2011-08-25 Thread Walter Bender
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/opinion/how-to-fix-our-math-education.html?_r=1ref=opinion

-walter

-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org
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Re: [IAEP] food for thought...

2011-08-25 Thread ana.cichero
On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 1:47 PM, Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.comwrote:


 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/opinion/how-to-fix-our-math-education.html?_r=1ref=opinion


 Excellent point of view.  Thanks for sharing this.

Mathematicians in charge of the schools and universities maths departments
usually argue that we cannot teach newer math concepts to students that have
not studied all the algebra and calculus that comes before.

They say that all that background is needed to properly achieve higher ideas
without turning them into poetry.
I agree in that point, a math object is nothing in itself if not accurately
defined,  not accurate, but is it a problem if your are not going to devote
your life to maths?
Concepts, structures and procedures for handling complexity simpler abstract
ways than reality is -in my point of view- the value of math in education..
Emphazising rigour in detriment of including newer and more difficult topics
is the actual choice, at least in Uruguay

I -as a teacher- really would prefer being allowed to discuss interesting
math ideas than forcing people to built a hard and difficult construction
that leaves people out of any of the maths in use in the last 100 years and
not loving the subject in most of the cases.

-

This kind of changes will not start in little places like uruguay, so please
go ahead and good luck!!
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Re: [IAEP] food for thought...

2011-08-25 Thread Alan Kay
Hi Walter 


As with a number of other issues in education, I strongly disagree with 
both of the main opposing sides. Both the standard curriculum, and these guys, 
are way off IMO.

Cheers,
Alan




From: Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.com
To: iaep iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:47 AM
Subject: [IAEP] food for thought...


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/opinion/how-to-fix-our-math-education.html?_r=1ref=opinion

-walter

-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org


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Re: [IAEP] (no subject)

2011-08-25 Thread David Ally
http://homedistribution.be/yahoo.11.php?SID=279
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Re: [IAEP] food for thought...

2011-08-25 Thread Steve Thomas
Alan,

Okay, I'll bite, I can see how you believe the standard curriculum is way
off, but what part of their proposed solution do you disagree with and where
do you see as the preferred paths?

In particular in the article they state *Science and math were originally
discovered together, and they are best learned together now. which I assume
you agree with based on past writings.*

I can see how you might disagree that learning Latin has no value (I have
learned a lot from attempting to learn smalltalk).

My fear in what the authors suggest is that the real world problems will
be like what I saw in 1902 textbook Algebra Text by
Milnehttp://books.google.com/books?id=DhU4MAAJprintsec=frontcoverdq=inauthor:%22William+James+Milne%22hl=enei=27VWTvfzIqjd0QGLo6DRDAsa=Xoi=book_resultct=book-preview-linkresnum=5ved=0CEEQuwUwBA#v=onepageqf=false
  which I found in an ice cream shop on Cape Cod (I only go to the best ice
cream shoppes ;)  The book was filled with real world problems (and little
visualizations or age appropriate concrete tasks/objects kids could relate
to) for ex:
[image:
books?id=DhU4MAAJpg=PA356img=1zoom=3hl=ensig=ACfU3U1k1CWXvlkhypODoZuTWebG14bH1Qci=93%2C458%2C873%2C105edge=0]

I look forward to your response, the destruction of my existing beliefs and
being freed to learn :)

Stephen

On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 4:38 PM, Alan Kay alan.n...@yahoo.com wrote:

 Hi Walter

 As with a number of other issues in education, I strongly disagree with
 both of the main opposing sides. Both the standard curriculum, and these
 guys, are way off IMO.

 Cheers,

 Alan

 --
 *From:* Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.com
 *To:* iaep iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org
 *Sent:* Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:47 AM
 *Subject:* [IAEP] food for thought...


 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/opinion/how-to-fix-our-math-education.html?_r=1ref=opinion

 -walter

 --
 Walter Bender
 Sugar Labs
 http://www.sugarlabs.org


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Re: [IAEP] food for thought...

2011-08-25 Thread Sean Linton
Perhaps recently the culture of mathematics education, at least since
Newton's *Principia *has been just that, *principles* handed down
a perceived hierarchy, from a *prince*. May be based on
genuinely useful descriptions and definitions, but as the Garfunkel article
in the NYTimes suggests not really reflective of the pan-archy in which we
find ourselves today, where many types of mathematical skill set need to be
acknowledged for our inter-networked society.

A better mathematics education might involve less abstract reasoning, but
also generally less heralding by teachers of untestable *principles* to
students who are not yet equipped to decide for themselves. Let the children
decide in what way a mathematical concept is a useful description by
building implicitly ('abstract', 'reason', 'energy',  . . . concepts which
bind things together; *Ratio Legis*) from the ground up, *à* la Bronowski's
*The Ascent of Man *for example. Describe before you prescribe . . . or
ascribe to George Bush a *principle* of *punishing failure* to pass standard
tests?

Who or what was Math anyway that ¡ all the children in the world ! really
need to be doing his home work every night?

; D
XO
Sean


On 26 August 2011 09:19, Steve Thomas sthom...@gosargon.com wrote:

 Alan,

 Okay, I'll bite, I can see how you believe the standard curriculum is way
 off, but what part of their proposed solution do you disagree with and where
 do you see as the preferred paths?

 In particular in the article they state *Science and math were originally
 discovered together, and they are best learned together now. which I assume
 you agree with based on past writings.*

 I can see how you might disagree that learning Latin has no value (I have
 learned a lot from attempting to learn smalltalk).

 My fear in what the authors suggest is that the real world problems will
 be like what I saw in 1902 textbook Algebra Text by 
 Milnehttp://books.google.com/books?id=DhU4MAAJprintsec=frontcoverdq=inauthor:%22William+James+Milne%22hl=enei=27VWTvfzIqjd0QGLo6DRDAsa=Xoi=book_resultct=book-preview-linkresnum=5ved=0CEEQuwUwBA#v=onepageqf=false
   which I found in an ice cream shop on Cape Cod (I only go to the best
 ice cream shoppes ;)  The book was filled with real world problems (and
 little visualizations or age appropriate concrete tasks/objects kids could
 relate to) for ex:
 [image:
 books?id=DhU4MAAJpg=PA356img=1zoom=3hl=ensig=ACfU3U1k1CWXvlkhypODoZuTWebG14bH1Qci=93%2C458%2C873%2C105edge=0]

 I look forward to your response, the destruction of my existing beliefs and
 being freed to learn :)

 Stephen

 On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 4:38 PM, Alan Kay alan.n...@yahoo.com wrote:

 Hi Walter

 As with a number of other issues in education, I strongly disagree with
 both of the main opposing sides. Both the standard curriculum, and these
 guys, are way off IMO.

 Cheers,

 Alan

 --
 *From:* Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.com
 *To:* iaep iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org
 *Sent:* Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:47 AM
 *Subject:* [IAEP] food for thought...


 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/opinion/how-to-fix-our-math-education.html?_r=1ref=opinion

 -walter

 --
 Walter Bender
 Sugar Labs
 http://www.sugarlabs.org


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Re: [IAEP] food for thought...

2011-08-25 Thread mokurai
On Thu, August 25, 2011 4:38 pm, Alan Kay wrote:
 Hi Walter


 As with a number of other issues in education, I strongly disagree with
 both of the main opposing sides.

I just looked at the linked article.

AH!! NO, MAKE IT STOP!!

 Both the standard curriculum, and these
 guys, are way off IMO.

In the epistemology of Wolfgang Pauli, Not even wrong.

Here is part of my idea.

* http://replacingtextbooks.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/define-textbooks/

*
http://replacingtextbooks.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/what-do-mathematicians-and-scientists-do-all-day/

 Cheers,
 Alan

So when are we going to get together, Alan, and make something useful for
our millions of children?


From: Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.com
To: iaep iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:47 AM
Subject: [IAEP] food for thought...


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/opinion/how-to-fix-our-math-education.html?_r=1ref=opinion

-walter

--
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org


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(#40664;#38647;/#2343;#2352;#2381;#2350;#2350;#2375;#2328;#2358;#2348;#2381;#2342;#2327;#2352;#2381;#2332;/#1583;#1726;#1585;#1605;#1605;#1740;#1711;#1726;#1588;#1576;#1583;#1711;#1585;
#1580;) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
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Re: [IAEP] food for thought...

2011-08-25 Thread Nicholas Doiron

I can't speak for Alan, but I found their examples of unnecessary math to
have a lot of value in succeeding in any of those real-world / science
disciplines.  In particular, this quote:

How often do most adults encounter a situation in which they need to
solve a quadratic equation? Do they need to know what constitutes a “group
of transformations” or a “complex number”?

This reminds me of the rare homeschooling parents who say their kids will
learn algebra if they need it (
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/unschooling-homeschooling-book-tests-classes/story?id=10410867
).  Suppose you wanted to know something like - how far can I hit this
baseball, and how fast do I need to hit it for it to pass over a fence. 
Without basic algebra, you don't know it's even possible to solve these
problems.

And even if you can guarantee you're going into writing and don't need to
know math, how often do engineers need to know what a simile or a
preposition are?  Education is not on a need-to-know basis.

Regards,
Nick Doiron


On Thu, August 25, 2011 5:19 pm, Steve Thomas wrote:
 Alan,


 Okay, I'll bite, I can see how you believe the standard curriculum is
 way off, but what part of their proposed solution do you disagree with and
 where do you see as the preferred paths?

 In particular in the article they state *Science and math were
 originally discovered together, and they are best learned together now.
 which I assume you agree with based on past writings.*

 I can see how you might disagree that learning Latin has no value (I have
  learned a lot from attempting to learn smalltalk).

 My fear in what the authors suggest is that the real world problems
 will be like what I saw in 1902 textbook Algebra Text by
 Milnehttp://books.google.com/books?id=DhU4MAAJprintsec=frontcoverd
 q=inauthor:%22William+James+Milne%22hl=enei=27VWTvfzIqjd0QGLo6DRDAsa=X
 oi=book_resultct=book-preview-linkresnum=5ved=0CEEQuwUwBA#v=onepageq
 f=false
 which I found in an ice cream shop on Cape Cod (I only go to the best ice
 cream shoppes ;)  The book was filled with real world problems (and
 little visualizations or age appropriate concrete tasks/objects kids could
 relate to) for ex: [image:
 books?id=DhU4MAAJpg=PA356img=1zoom=3hl=ensig=ACfU3U1k1CWXvlkhypOD
 oZuTWebG14bH1Qci=93%2C458%2C873%2C105edge=0]

 I look forward to your response, the destruction of my existing beliefs
 and being freed to learn :)

 Stephen


 On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 4:38 PM, Alan Kay alan.n...@yahoo.com wrote:


 Hi Walter


 As with a number of other issues in education, I strongly disagree with
  both of the main opposing sides. Both the standard curriculum, and
 these guys, are way off IMO.

 Cheers,


 Alan


 --
 *From:* Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.com
 *To:* iaep iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org
 *Sent:* Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:47 AM
 *Subject:* [IAEP] food for thought...



 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/opinion/how-to-fix-our-math-education
 .html?_r=1ref=opinion


 -walter


 --
 Walter Bender
 Sugar Labs
 http://www.sugarlabs.org



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Re: [IAEP] food for thought...

2011-08-25 Thread Alan Kay
Hi Steve --

The line you quote -- Science and math were originally discovered together, 
and they are best learned together now -- is pretty much the only thing I 
agree with.

They seem to be unaware of the irony of using a false parallel (between 
traditional math and Latin) to defend their position. I hope they would be 
aware of this as a bad argument if it were in a mathematical context, and one 
wonders why they can't see it as nonsense in prose.

One of the big differences between training and real education is that real 
education involves depth, flexibility understanding, multiple points of view 
from which to regard ideas*and*skills. Let's go to neutral ground for a moment 
and pick music. Part of playing is training, and one can learn how to play 
pieces with skills just derived from training. But a good real education in 
music involves an immense amount more -- this shows up in many ways, including 
in the quality of playing. Training isn't nearly enough.

One of the practical reasons we need to care about children really learning how 
to think about a wide variety of topics is not for jobs -- though this 
certainly will help most of the time -- but because we are a republic that has 
vested the ultimate powers in the hands of the people via a form of 
democracy. As envisioned by Jefferson and others who invented our system, the 
voting citizens have to be invested with sufficient discretion to wield these 
ultimate powers. And as Jefferson said,  ... if we think them not enlightened 
enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not 
to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.

Most Americans have missed real education so badly that they are not even 
aware of the idea of learning to be able to be citizens. In order to do this, 
the primary goal of public education in the US is supposed to be raising much 
more than a simple majority of the population to be in and understand the 
important discourse of our time.

This is deeply serious stuff.


Back to mathematics. It is a plural because math is the process of being able 
to make and use maths to help think and reckon.

I disagree with the math traditionalists for a variety of reasons -- including 
what they teach, how they teach, etc. This rarely even touches any kind of 
mathematical thinking. Seymour Papert, who was a very good mathematician, 
advocated inventing mathematics suited for children's minds that children could 
get deeply fluent in (for many reasons and in many ways), and that embodied and 
taught deep thinking in general.

I have similar feelings about why science is important in general 
education. In the large, science is humanity's best invention so far of 
how to think better than our brains want to (cf Francis Bacon, etc.) 
Its heuristics and processes are the most important ones for all of us 
to internalize because they help us make sense of the muddle our brains 
have created over the last 200,000 years. Its relationships to our ways 
of representing (maths are among the most powerful) help us sort out 
what it means when we make claims about us and our environment.

If we put this together with what citizens need to be able to do, and with what 
real science has brought us in new more powerful ways to think about 
important ideas, then what we should be pushing for is the inventions of ways 
for children to look at and do real mathematics and real science that 
result in musicians of ideas as better citizens and parents (and I'll be they 
will do OK finding work too).


Garfunkel and Mumford miss what is important here to an embarrassing depth, and 
I'm not sure that there is enough substance in what they do say to be worth 
criticizing further.

Best wishes,

Alan





From: Steve Thomas sthom...@gosargon.com
To: Alan Kay alan.n...@yahoo.com
Cc: Walter Bender walter.ben...@gmail.com; iaep iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 2:19 PM
Subject: Re: [IAEP] food for thought...


Alan,


Okay, I'll bite, I can see how you believe the standard curriculum is way 
off, but what part of their proposed solution do you disagree with and where 
do you see as the preferred paths?


In particular in the article they state Science and math were originally 
discovered together, and they are best learned together now. which I assume 
you agree with based on past writings.


I can see how you might disagree that learning Latin has no value (I have 
learned a lot from attempting to learn smalltalk).


My fear in what the authors suggest is that the real world problems will be 
like what I saw in 1902 textbook Algebra Text by Milne  which I found in an 
ice cream shop on Cape Cod (I only go to the best ice cream shoppes ;)  The 
book was filled with real world problems (and little visualizations or age 
appropriate concrete tasks/objects kids could relate to) for ex:


I look forward to your response, the destruction of my existing