i sent gunnarsen a response, mentioning that i've been writing about his messages here, and suggesting a chat on thursday. he said that thursday will probably work and he responded to a few of my comments.

he picked up on my vague phrase "the mathematically disenfranchised", emphasizing that elitism based on student parental wealth isn't the kind of elitism he prefers. that's part of what i was getting at, but not all.

sometimes i think that there's no such thing as anti-elitism; rather there are just competing visions of who counts as elite. it's pretty clear that i have such a vision even if the details of it aren't so clear. i don't know yet how my elitism might compare to gunnarsen's, or how much that might matter.

gunnarsen again emphasized the suzuki method of music teaching as some sort of model for what he has in mind. i don't know much about this method yet. gunnarsen's e-mail had an attachment that i didn't read yet where maybe he says more about it.

sometimes i hear teachers in subject area x complain that x-teaching has generally failed to keep up with advances in teaching methods pioneered in subject area y, while many conscientious y-teachers are in turn thoroughly dissatisfied with the general standards of y-teaching. in particular i sometimes hear this with y = music.
often music teaching succeeds in getting students really involved in the subject in a way that teachers in other subject areas may envy, but conscientious music teachers often despair at the dominance of rote imitation over creativity in many music classes.

for some reason i'm also reminded now of something i heard recently from some russian mathematician who said that dealing with "western"-trained mathematicians was like listening to musicians who learned how to play on instruments that were slightly but audibly out of tune.

i'm just rambling here; i have to meet gunnarsen in a few minutes and i don't have time to express my thoughts carefully right now.

i'm keeping an open mind so far about what gunnarsen and/or sinick may have in mind.

i have strong opinions about mathematics and about how it should be taught. for me to agree with practically anyone about such things enough to enter into some sort of joint venture with them might take a minor miracle.

i'll see how it goes.