I’m sitting in a Starbucks in NorthCarolina next to three young community college students who are studying calculus on a Saturday morning. They were nice enough to answer my two questions. The fist was “What is the definition of the derivative?” Two said they don’t know, then one said it is a rate. I pressed him for a “definition” and he said he thought it was f(x+h)-f(x), but then said that was all he knew; another said “no, that is a limit, not a derivative.” They all threw up their hands and said they don’t really understand what they are doing, they just do the problems. I asked about their grades. They have had two tests, six grades in all, three A’s, a B, and two C’s.
I won’t comment because I don’t know enough about the situation. I just wanted to report it.
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