I read the manifesto and somewhat disagree with the claim "It follows that we must not introduce any topic for which we cannot first convince the students that they should want to pursue it."
But in skimming the book, it's just seems not very good.
"I read the manifesto and somewhat disagree with the claim "It follows that we must not introduce any topic for which we cannot first convince the students that they should want to pursue it.""
Why not? Did you never experienced the differences in learning something because you had to vs. learning something because you are interested in it? I found the latter to be far more effective and the first mostly a sad waste of time.
School math was mostly wasted on me. So many hours for nothing (even though I had somewhat good grades). But when I have a specific coding problem now, that I can solve with math - then I see a reason and then I enjoy doing math, as it now has a purpose. If people think, I will never need that crap, than their brain will resist learning it. The result is wasted time and energy for everyone involved.
I also took a brief look at the calculus "book" (more a set of lecture notes) and far from being the revolutionary novel approach that it claims to be I found it fairly... standard?
But in skimming the book, it's just seems not very good.