Mathematics is a woman’s domain too. Discovering Mathematical understanding using innate common sense, enabling Mathematics to becomes your best problem-solving friend.
Mathematics is an innate human ability, that uses meaningful problem-solving mental tools to function efficiently.
About Me
- Alexander Harvey Firestone
Alexander H. Firestone has spent most of his life in education teaching, and conducting Research on his pet interest, preparing students, using Mathematics as a vehicle, to become happy, responsible, caring, self-confident logical, thinkers, who will be able to contribute towards helping solve societies major problems; problems which have mental, spiritual, social, and physical elements. He has used the understanding of Mathematics and its appropriate use, as a vehicle, to bring together, intellectual reasoning, and spiritual power, the two special gifts which our creator gave humans, but to no other living organism. It is only through the use, of our Spiritual nature, as a last resource, that we have not completely become extinct, through wars, and the many other harmful and destructive ecological, man-made activities that have become part of our journey through life.
You are who you are through the adversities you have in life, and how you resolved them. I have worked all my life, so my first work was picking potatoes during the war as a five year old. Picking potatoes in those days meant grubbing through the dirt with your hands and fingers after the grubber has gone by for the potatoes. Occasionally a baby rabbit would run out, as a five year old, the race was on, trying to catch them. It must have happened regularly, because I can still hear the sound in my head “Get back to picking potatoes”. At eight years of age I graduated to washing windows. I washed the lower levels and my Dad washed the higher ones. I always whistled or sang while doing this. I was mostly out of sight of Dad because whenever I stopped whistling or singing, he’d shout out “stop looking through the windows, and get back to washing”. I rarely looked through the windows, but when I saw children playing with train sets, the fascination was too great. My parents were very concerned about me doing well at school, so at eight and a half, they promised me they’d buy me a Meccano set if I became top of the class. That was a big challenge as in those days classes were 50 in number and I was still working on the week end. I don’t think my parents ever thought that I would reach that milestone as when I became top of the class they had difficulty raising the money for the set. It was only a small set, but it was my pride and joy.
At the age of 10 my parents immigrated to the states. Specifically, Los Angeles. My parents had little schooling so the jobs they were able to get offered little pay and long hours. At the age of 11 I heard my mother crying behind their bedroom door “how can we save money and also pay our bills”. I had seen men selling newspapers on the corner of streets at their news-stands, and convinced one of them that I could sell newspapers outside one of the big restaurants after school and on weekends. I was very successful and a hard reliable worker, so I worked my way up the newspaper ladder until at 16 I was promoted to Sunday sales manager for newspaper delivery, building up my own area. In the end I had 16 children working for me, carrying the newspapers in the wagons that the Los Angeles Times supplied. I delivered the bulk of them, a little over 2,000 newspapers, but I had a 1956 Chevrolet motor car to help me. You had to pay to go to university. It was with this job that I paid for all of my tuition. I wanted to become a teacher, as I had difficulty with teachers. Under the Education requirements they were probably considered good teachers, but I judged them by my requirements. I was a stickler for understanding. I couldn’t afford to pay to have tutors like the other students. I had to depend on myself. If I couldn’t understand the lesson after giving it my best I’d raise my hand and ask questions. I thought I was helping the teacher by doing this, by letting them know I didn’t understand the problem-solving procedure. I thought my teachers were the font of all knowledge. Teachers were mostly annoyed by my questions, I didn’t realize that when I asked a question it was outside their level of understanding. They would respond by making the other students laugh, or make a derogatory comment about me. This period of time was very difficult for me, but at the same time, was very important. I was increasing my level of understanding and wisdom, while others were only memorizing problem-solving procedures effective for specific problems. I was gaining understanding enabling me to transfer what I had learned for solving new types of problems. While in university I was aiming for a PhD. Towards the end of gaining a Bsc, I met a young, attractive student.
My yearning for a PhD went out the window. I realized I needed a steady good paying job. Because I was working my way through university, I was unable to socialize with other students. They were more interested in gaining employment after the Bsc. So were sending out Resume’s for all sorts of job applications. I asked one of the student, for the address of a good place to apply for a position. As a practical joke he recommended Electro-Optical Systems in Pasadena. I didn’t know that this was a research organization looking for the cream of the graduates. I had an interview, I was impressed with what the company was trying to do, but at the end of the interview I was told there were 46 more applicants to interview. This company was one of the cream of companies doing research, they were working on deep space probes, rockets that were able to function in deep space, contracts for NASA and the Air Force. I had no experience in this field, I was doing research in super-conductivity, but wasn’t aware this was not the sort of research undergraduate’s did. I only saw a company that students from top universities applied to, and felt I didn’t have a chance, coming from what would have been considered a low end university. I was the successful candidate. It was my level of understanding and ability that gave me the confidence jump from what type of situation to another that demonstrated I would be a good problem-solver for new directions of activity.
In my first week of employment I realized that my high school and university study had ill equipped me as a problem-solver in applied physics for new projects. I asked myself what was my bread and butter in this new problem solving situation, Mathematics; but what is Mathematics; addition, subtraction and …; but what is addition? The more basic questions I asked myself, the more I couldn’t find a simple answer based on understanding. I did realize that every question I asked started with What, and putting into practice started with How. With more self questions I need to know how do I know I’m on the right track, by visualization and reflection. This was the beginning of my new journey into understanding. I was not working in university where I knew what the problem was; was supplied with all of the formula and procedures I needed; and did not have the answer to the problem which was in the answer page of the book. I was very successful as a problem-solver working as a Research Physicist and was co-author for a number of patents involving ion-rocket engines. The girl who I gave up my university work for, but gained an exciting career insolving novel problems in deep space propulsion devices, decided she was not ready for marriage. I ended up marrying Sylvia Barret another university graduate, and within a year of marriage we decided to immigrate to Australia where I started my career as a teacher. I was in my element, I concentrated on teaching understanding, using the methods that were so successful as a Research Physicist. The What, became the Concept, the How became the Rule and Rule and visualization and reflection became the Why. Why am I thinking, feeling, and behaving this way.
He has given talks at International Conferences in New Zealand as well as in Australia. He has spent a total of four years, invited to, and living in China, to demonstrate his ideas of teaching Mathematics, using it as an Intellectual as well as Spiritual force.
"An unexpected failure during intellectual problem-solving offers, through reflection, the opportunity to discover new knowledge, understanding, and wisdom."
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About my book
BOOK COMING SOON
Mathematics, is a scientific, logical, problem-solving language
It is generally known that Mathematics is a language; unfortunately world-wide, only lip service has been paid to this knowledge. In the teaching of Mathematics English (or Mother language) has been used to describe and explain what Mathematics is, how we use the Mathematics symbols, and how the symbols are logically used to problem-solve. This book is a novel approach to teaching Mathematics; It demonstrate how Concepts, Rules, Why (Visualization and Reflection) must be used in the teaching and understanding of Mathematics. It defines Mathematics as a problem-solving, logical, scientific language. It uses Concepts which Always tells you what to do, and Rules which Always tells you How to do it, and Why (Visualization and Reflection) is used to verify that Concepts and Rules are used appropriately. The teaching method uses the framework all languages use: Comprehension and Understanding. It must be understood that the symbols described in English are identical to those used in Mathematics. Unfortunately, the Mathematics meaning is quite different than the meaning given in English (mother language). What, How, and Why must be integrated into the understanding. This is one of the main reasons why Mathematics is poorly taught and understood The Mathematics meanings of the symbols must be used when learning and understanding problem-solving.
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