As noted by commenter Craig earlier in the week, McKenzie Alexander Clements, AKA Ken Clements, has died. Tributes to Ken have been posted by AMSI and the MAV.
I don’t believe I ever met Ken Clements, and I know little about him, but it is clear he was very big in Australian mathematics education, and he was a scholar. Time and again, while venturing down one of my weird rabbit holes, I discovered that Ken had already visited and had located all of the rabbits. Ken had a populist slant, which, in particular, had the effect of him being generally critical of universities’ effects on school education, and which I often find very frustrating; I have a post in the works that includes a pseudo-swipe at Ken. But Ken also dug deep and wrote with great care; Ken is the go-to guy for the history of Victorian school mathematics and its administration. Ken’s Mathematics for the Minority is an excellent (and annoying) capsule history.
Ken Clements, often with his wife Nerida Ellerton, has appeared in or been the focus of a number of posts here. For Ken’s excellent report on a very young Terry Tao, go here (with updated link). For a discussion on teaching to the test a century ago, go here. For the original calculator sin, go here. For trig from a hundred years ago, and the birth of TNDOT, go here. And, for general history, go here (the footnotes). Finally, we haven’t written about it, but for the story of Ken and Nerida’s discovery of Abraham Lincoln’s homework, go here and here and here.
Just noticed that this got zero comments and didn’t want you to think it was unread or unappreciated. Learned a lot going down the various rabbit holes linked to here.
Thanks, Alex. I’ve gotten used to some of my posts attract few or no comments, sometimes simply because there may not be much to say. So, I wasn’t insulted on Clements’ behalf. But I appreciate your comment and your thoughts. I disagree a lot with Clements but he was a good and valuable guy.