Friday, October 20, 2006

Numbers seven and six unveiled

Yep, double posting - amazing how busy one gets on holiday!

So, at number seven: the SPMG series of textbooks. That's Scottish Primary Mathematics Group, don'tcha know. Pretty ubiquitous and in use across much (most?) of the country towards the end of the century. I confess that my knowledge of the scheme is a bit hazy, but liturgybuff was kind enough to suggest it, and who am I to disagree?

Number six is a bit similar. For a lot of youngsters not long out of school, the words "Maths In Action" will be well-known. MIA is still going strong, having been reborn as "Mathematics In Action"... hang on, it may be the other way round now I think about it. Whatever. But in days past MIA had near total dominance in the Scottish market for years S1 to S4 in particular. Are the books truly great? Well, no, to be honest, but they got a fair amount right (except for their two attempts at Higher Maths books, which didn't impress me one bit) and I can't help but reward their popularity. MIA tend to be good for the more able pupil, but their efforts for the lower end leave a lot to be desired, so that's why I'm keeping them out of the top five.

Accepting both awards is Bert McBert, chairman of the Bert McBert Committee on och I can't be bothered with this I'm off to bed.

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