If you were in elementary school in the mid-1970s...

[EKS]

Do you remember learning set theory, or at least some elements of it (pun intended 🤣), early on--in like second grade?

By "set theory" I mean things like Venn diagrams, what a subset is, and some of the notation.

[Innisfree]

Yes, we learned it, but I don’t remember at what stage. I want to say it was pretty early, but not sure.

Edited February 3, 2023 by Innisfree

[stephanier.1765]

4 minutes ago, Innisfree said:

Yes, we learned it, but I don’t remember at what stage. I want to say it was pretty early, but not sure.

Yes, I did too. I have distinct memories of this. I couldn't tell you the exact year but I was in school for the entire 70's.

[Rebel]

I don't recall doing any of this, but that was also a very long time ago. The only specific math activities I remember are those pages with 100 simple addition/subtraction/multiplication/division problems and the teacher having us competing against each other to see how quickly we could get all 100 done and correct.

[almondbutterandjelly]

I remember a picture in the math book of this, but I don't think the teacher actually taught this way.

[lmrich]

I remember learning it  but could not tell you in what grade. 

[TravelingChris]

Yes, definitely.   I was so bored with elementary math---I liked learning about square numbers and cubed numbers and all sorts of things that weren't talked about or done.

[EKS]

I also remember learning about different bases.  That was in sixth grade at a school that used an older textbook.

I think that my school made the transition from the "new math" to "cookbook math" when I was in third or fourth grade.  Then I went to sixth grade at a different school.

I remember that that the set stuff as well as the base stuff was by far my favorite thing.

Edited February 3, 2023 by EKS

[Bootsie]

Yes, I remember this in second and third grade, which would have been early 1970s.

[mom2scouts]

No, I don't remember learning that in elementary school, but that was so long ago. 

[SKL]

I remember venn diagrams in elementary school, but I don't remember what grade.  Probably before 5th since math got more serious in 5th.

[Pawz4me]

No, I don’t remember learning it. But my memory for things that long ago isn’t good. 

[EKS]

I just found the series my school used and confirmed that the second grade book had stuff about sets in it.  Over the years I've looked and never found anything, so I'm stunned that I found anything this time around.

The series was called Modern School Mathematics.

Here is a link with photos of the inside for the second grade book.

 

[Murphy101]

I remember Venn diagrams as early intro to science classification.  Probably because only remember it bc it was about animals and I was all things outdoors and animals in elementary school. 

[azucena]

I remember set theory from elementary school in the 1970s.  I don't recall the specific textbook you linked to.  But I definitely remember set notation and the axiom that "the empty set is a member of every set."

[*****]

Yes, I remember this in early elementary.  I remember math being introduced with felt shapes:  same/different,  or 2 trees in this set vs. 3 trees in the other set and learning they were not the same, or more/less.  Then learning 3 apples and 2 more apples = 5 apples all together, etc.     I liked this way of introduction.

I also remember sets in workbooks with the brackets, but don't remember a whole lot of Venn diagrams, but we were introduced to it.

I often wonder now why we moved away from 'the term sets' in math, it seems very logical to me.

[kbutton]

10 minutes ago, EKS said:

I just found the series my school used and confirmed that the second grade book had stuff about sets in it.  Over the years I've looked and never found anything, so I'm stunned that I found anything this time around.

The series was called Modern School Mathematics.

Here is a link with photos of the inside for the second grade book.

I wasn't in school then, but Miquon also introduces sets. I think it has a publishing date of 1977. 

[Terabith]

I was in elementary school in Tennessee in the 80’s, and we definitely learned a ton of set theory and theoretical math in general. I realized much later how incredible my math education really was.  
 

ETA-  I did a lot of math competitions from like 88-91, in junior high, and set theory and other discrete math topics featured prominently.  We also did a lot of arithmetic in different bases. I took discrete math in college, and it was pretty much all review of stuff I did in late elementary and junior high. My kids have gotten none of that in school in the great race to calculus, and their math education is really inferior to what I had. My husband, same age, went to school in Erie, PA and had none of that. 

Edited February 3, 2023 by Terabith

[Annie G]

I started first grade in 1967 and learned ‘New Math’ that included set theory every year at the beginning of the year.  sets, subsets, Union, and intersection.  

[Kareni]

Like @Annie G, I feel that we covered set theory every year (subsets, supersets, and more).  ETA: This was prior to the mid-seventies.

Regards,

Kareni

[QueenCat]

I definitely learned that in elementary school but couldn't tell you what grade it was in. 

[elegantlion]

52 minutes ago, EKS said:

I just found the series my school used and confirmed that the second grade book had stuff about sets in it.  Over the years I've looked and never found anything, so I'm stunned that I found anything this time around.

The series was called Modern School Mathematics.

Here is a link with photos of the inside for the second grade book.

 

According to the photos, Mary Dolciani is one of the authors. She is the author whose classic 1960s algebra texts were all the rage on the high school board a few years ago. 

I was in elementary school in the 70s but don't remember if we learned set theory or not. 

[EKS]

26 minutes ago, elegantlion said:

According to the photos, Mary Dolciani is one of the authors. 

Oh wow I didn’t even notice that!

[Jaybee]

1 hour ago, EKS said:

I also remember learning about different bases.  That was in sixth grade at a school that used an older textbook.

I was in elementary school mostly in the 60s. I remember doing sets, but not sure when. Different bases study was in 5th grade, I think. I was not interested in math in general, but different bases fascinated me! We also used equations to do graphing, and I really enjoyed that, too. In high school, the only math course I really cared about was geometry, which I loved. We did all the proofs, etc. Same teacher for algebras 1 and 2 and geometry, so it was the subject matter, not the teacher. 

[MEmama]

No, but I don't remember much of elementary school or when we learned what. 

[cave canem]

3 hours ago, EKS said:

The series was called Modern School Mathematics

I loved this book.

I also remember computing with different bases in fifth grade.

I am done homeschooling but still treasure all of my Dolciani textbooks.

[Dmmetler]

 

I lived in a college town (three colleges/universities, plus a community college, in a very small geographic area). I remember doing a ton of formal logic, too. 

 

[Terabith]

28 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

 

I lived in a college town (three colleges/universities, plus a community college, in a very small geographic area). I remember doing a ton of formal logic, too. 

 

We weren’t allowed to do algebra until ninth grade, but we did a ton of truth tables in middle school. 

[Farrar]

I was just a bit later, but we did some weird combo. I remember learning that stuff in a sort of enrichment that also included computers. We had like six of them and they were huge and AFAIK, the literal only thing you could do with them was program the little Logo turtle. So the main math was very traditional, but I was in a special program where the way it worked was that you took the chapter test to start the unit and then the teacher assigned the work based on what you didn't know. If you aced the test, you got to skip the unit. But then everyone did this special stuff that included set theory and computers. It was definitely stuff similar to the original new math.

[Spy Car]

I believe we did. 1960s.

I'm also at the age where I start to conflate certain memories  

Bill

[iamonlyone]

Yes. I loved Venn diagrams (and still kind of do). 😁

[Dmmetler]

One of the lessons I taught while I was in teacher training was set theory where I took the 1st graders out on the playground, drew giant Venn diagrams, and the kids and various classroom items were the elements of sets. My cooperating teacher commented that "oh, we just skip that part of the book". That would have been early 1990's. 

[Corraleno]

I definitely remember learning set theory and different bases in elementary school in the 60s, but I don't remember which grades. 

[NorthernBeth]

yeah, I definitely remember learning set theory quite young.

 

[Wheres Toto]

I definitely remember learning Venn diagrams and set theory but I don't remember using the notation that I've seen used more recently that looks like upside down U's, etc.  

[Indigo Blue]

Yes. The brackets, Venn diagrams, etc. Mid 70’s. 

[Momto6inIN]

We did Venn diagrams but no notation and it wasn't taught as part of math at all. We did some Venn diagrams in enrichment and I only ever thought it was a cool way to visually classify things.

I honestly didn't know it was considered part of "math" until I used Video Text with my kids 😬

[Matryoshka]

12 hours ago, EKS said:

Do you remember learning set theory, or at least some elements of it (pun intended 🤣), early on--in like second grade?

By "set theory" I mean things like Venn diagrams, what a subset is, and some of the notation.

Yes.  I remember set theory in second grade. 😁  It was a new math thing.

[SKL]

An aside, but reading these comments reminds me ... when I started college in 1983, dual majoring in Elementary Education / Special Education, I was supposed to take a class called "Basic Math Concepts."  I bought the book and started looking through it.  I was appalled that a good chunk of the book was about the set stuff that people are remembering from early elementary school.  I was sure I couldn't perform in such a basic class, so I got permission to take a more challenging math sequence.

[Shoeless]

12 hours ago, EKS said:

I just found the series my school used and confirmed that the second grade book had stuff about sets in it.  Over the years I've looked and never found anything, so I'm stunned that I found anything this time around.

The series was called Modern School Mathematics.

Here is a link with photos of the inside for the second grade book.

 

The inside of the book is jogging a memory, but I can't say for certain we used that specific book. I know we had workbooks in 1st grade that had similar pictures along the sides. I remember one page that had little triangles running away from another group of triangles to symbolize subtraction. 

I remember going over Venn diagrams several times in elementary.