![]() It became a coveted site for benefit concerts featuring the likes of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, and for special events designed to help groups and organizations Dr. Integral House was initially intended to be a larger venue for his private concerts, but soon evolved into a project of life-changing significance. Stewart was trying to arrange the purchase of a Guarneri violin. His final salon at Integral House included a performance by 20-year-old violinist Blake Pouliot, for whom Dr. He took an interest in promising younger musicians, often featuring them in his house concerts. The second he touched that violin he became a different person." "When you talked to Jim he was calm, organized and rational, but when he played the violin he was none of those things," says William Ralph, a long-time friend, pianist and mathematician who often played chamber music with Dr. At all stages during his adult life, he held musical salons in his home, where many of the guests were math colleagues who also loved music. He often gave talks on the links between math and music, and mused about writing a book on the subject. It was similar to his feeling for the beauty of a sonata by Beethoven or Schubert, or for the many glass art works displayed in his home. Stewart's passion for the beauty of calculus – for "the way it all fits together," as he said. ![]() "He was an amazing teacher, and really thought about mathematical thinking, and about how to communicate with students and let them know why we appreciate our subject."Īt the heart of that appreciation was Dr. "There's lots of extra stuff, little historical details that bring the subject to life," says Deirdre Haskell, a McMaster math professor. Stewart sympathized with the movement, and incorporated its ideas into subsequent editions, while maintaining the thoroughness of a traditional textbook. Fears that students were not fully engaging with the dry texts commonly in use prompted calls for a more contextual approach. He also kept abreast of the seismic changes in calculus education that began in the late 1980s. Stewart constantly solicited reviews of his work from those who used the books, and attended to suggestions for improvement. "Jim cared enormously about his students, and took pains to explain everything in steps that were of equal size."ĭr. "It was very well planned and thought out, and extremely easy to teach from," says Walter Craig, director of the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, where Dr. That first book, published by Brooks/Cole, sold modestly at first, but by the time the second edition appeared in 1992, it was the bestselling work in the field. He spent seven years on it, saying later that with his teaching, research and writing, he worked 13 hours a day for 364 days of the year. He co-wrote some high-school texts in the 1970s, but it took a suggestion from a couple of his students at McMaster for him to try writing a university-level calculus text. From his first experience as a teaching assistant in London, he knew that he loved teaching and wanted to excel at it. ![]() "I remember him saying in first-year university, 'The professors really know their math, but they have no clue how to teach,'" recalls his sister, Sally Smith. Early in this process, he decided something was wrong with the way math was being taught. On these pages, a box to select the notation system appears at the right.He studied math and sciences at the University of Toronto and Stanford University, and did post-doctoral work at the University of London's Chelsea College, while continuing his violin studies at the Guildhall School of Music. The following Math Insight pages allow one to specifically select the Stewart notation system. The notation from Calculus, Sixth Edition by James Stewart. ![]()
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