Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

In 5th or 6th grade in Belgium (circa 1977) they had a self-paced “programmed math” book where on each page they introduce concepts, with a few questions and you try to answer them, with answers on the next page. If you answered correctly you could move forward, else review. It was absolutely gripping for me and I advanced way ahead of the rest of my class, through concepts like sets, vectors, etc, which in hindsight seems quite advanced compared to what’s in “Common Core US” math today in those grades.

I have been searching for those books online but couldn’t find them, or maybe I am not searching for the right keywords.

If anyone knows the books I am referring to, I would be willing to pay premium :)



Continuing on the theme of math books, it is a really sad state of affairs in US schools these days: there is not even a single textbook that is followed. I am in one of the top public school districts and when I see my son’s class materials, they are a jumble of materials pulled from the internet.


You can google for the key terms: "programmed instruction" and "programmed learning". These were popular, I loved them too. I remember some had a tear-out flap so you could hide the answer while you're reading the text!

The Little Schemer uses programmed instruction.


If you end-up finding one of these books, please let me know the title/author. It sounds like a really interesting approach... almost like a choose your own adventure.


WP is rather informative about the approach:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmed_learning


Indeed, this was exactly the kind of book we had. Nice to see this background, thanks for sharing.


Will do! These books were introduced as an experimental format under “nouveau mathemathique”, probably were discontinued.


Possibly "TutorTexts"

https://gamebooks.org/Series/457/Show

I had Lasker's chess one as a school prize - it was awesome.


Interesting will look this up. The book we had in Belgium was in French, it had a horizontal layout, blue cover, page looked minimal, almost typewritten.


Judging from this one - I think these are the series you remember:

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/Principes-d%C3%A9lectricit%C3%A9-...


Wow great find, thank you, I will look them up!


There is a picture of the French edition of the algebra one here:

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22497336...


Some links to Grace Martin's books here - which include the French editions of her math TutorTexts:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22...


So these are now unavailable I guess, other than at specialty bookshops or collectors?


Well, the chess one is still in print:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CHESS-COMPLETE-SELF-TUTOR-Self-Tuto...

and i can see several of the others on secondhand sites (eg ABE books) for varying prices, but often not too expensive, if you don't need to deliver outside of the US.

If the chess one is any guide, they may have lost the explicit TutorText branding (and changed title slightly) if and when they moved to other publishers so best to search by author.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: