[hutzlibu]

"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.