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BORING!!!
A reader asked:
I hate math! No matter how much I try to like it, I just can’t. It just bores me to death, which makes me uninterested in it, which makes me bad at it! Do you have any tips on how to lighten it up a little bit and make it more fun?
Professor Homunculus replies:
First, let me say that I think you have a healthy outlook. You seem to know that there is more to math than the boring crap that the psycho-nazi math teachers from hell torture you with, and you are looking for answers.
Have no fear,” the truth is out there.” It is just not in the textbooks. It’s not that math is so boring, it’s that math class is so boring.
You will have to do some actual reading, but it won’t be boring. Start with an old book called “Playing with Infinity.” It is an inexpensive paperback by Dover Press, and it is brilliant. No examples, formulas, or boring stuff. Just plain talk about why math makes sense, and how it uses your imagination.
Make sure you go to a good bookstore and head to the math section, and open lots and lots of math books that don’t look too technical and look at them. There will surely be one that doesn’t intimidate you. I don’t know how old you are, but there is a book that looks like a kid’s book, but really has a ton of good motivating math for adults. It is called “The Number Devil.” It is brilliant.
I am starting a website called www.whyyousuckatmath.com. Check out the first page (the rest aren’t set up yet.) A lot of the following tirade comes from it. It will eventually have decent, fun, interesting stuff on it.
Now, the tirade against the way schools teach math:
Administrators and politicians haul out “the big lie” when they feel pressure to show “results.” The lie is called “standards.” The tests they give test you are harder and harder on less and less meaningful information.
Is that fair to you? Don’t you think you deserve a fair explanation of things that matter, before you are tested on them?
I think we should raise the standards for the bureaucrats first.
Before we trash the teachers too hard, let’s see if we can figure out why Mr. Jones can’t teach.
Mr. Jones went through the same school system, more or less, that you did.
On top of that, almost no one wants teachers to earn the same wages that people who use their knowledge only for themselves earn.
Someone who uses their math degree to write computer code for a company that markets mindless entertainment products which are meant to suck your brains out probably makes a lot more money than Mr. Jones. Furthermore, he doesn’t have a classroom full of snot-nosed spoiled kids to deal with. Nor irate parents who have never even seen their children’s homework assignments, but insist that the teachers “raise the standards.”
So where does the situation stem from?
There are a lot of sources. One way to find the source, is to follow the money. Who gets paid most to do the least? Start with the administration, work you way up to the superintendents, and keep going to the School Boards and the Board of Education. Identify anyone in any of those positions who is not a troublemaker, and you have found a link on the chain that wants power and recognition, but does not want to do the right thing, or even get their hands dirty.
We all know the situation needs work and change. Anyone who isn’t really working for a change is really working not for a change. Anyone who gets paid to tell you what a good job he/she is doing for you is a big-time source of what’s keeping the system from serving you and what’s keeping you serving the system.
Think about this: anyone telling you what a great job they are doing for you is a LIAR. If they were doing a good job, you would be telling them, wouldn’t you? You know which teachers are doing a good job. You know it’s the ones who make you want to work harder. Not the ones who teach to the test. The ones who are honest with you. Not the ones who try to make you feel good about being an idiot. The ones who help you be more intelligent, expose you to more thoughts, teach you to trust your brain, and make you feel good about that.
It is time we held our teachers accountable for being like that. It’s not an easy thing to do, because it’s not fair to hold them accountable for something their bosses don’t understand or value.
One solution for that is to get them some new bosses. Get those suits out of there! Shake them up! Get them to know you are on to them. If enough students and parents take education seriously, we can get rid of the “self-esteem” pushers, and get our kids some meaningful education.
Until parents and students find better ways to understand concepts better than the schools teach them (are you beginning to get cold feet already?) those desk-jockeys will continue to feel comfortable with the status quo.
We have to show them what standards are needed, and hold them to those standards, before they can hold our students to meaningful standards.
How can you start? Obviously not in a school that is not as good as it could be. Here is my greatest tip:
READ BOOKS! Read math books that are not boring textbooks. Get good books from the library. Go to the better teachers after school and ask for extra help. ( Just don’t ask for extra help from a teacher who’s regular help sucks.) Go to a library. Ask a librarian (these are wonderful, underutilized people who don’t grade you!)
We have identified that a huge part of the problem lies with the system. But you are part of the system. If you expect the answer to come from the problem, you may be looking in the wrong direction. You can’t be disappointed if the problem doesn’t solve itself. It is ultimately up to you to bring new input, and hold it up to the system for comparison.
Don’t succumb to the status quo!
Don’t be another victim of the failure of imagination!
Hotcha!
Professor Homunculus
A reader asked:
BORING!!!
I hate math! No matter how much I try to like it, I just can’t. It just bores me to death, which makes me uninterested in it, which makes me bad at it! Do you have any tips on how to lighten it up a little bit and make it more fun?
Professor Homunculus sez:
First, let me say that I think you have a healthy outlook. You seem to know that there is more to math than the boring crap that the psycho-nazi math teachers from hell torture you with, and you are looking for answers.
Have no fear,” the truth is out there.” It is just not in the textbooks. It’s not that math is so boring, it’s that math as a school subject is so boring (they are not the same).
You will have to do some actual reading, but it won’t be boring. Start with an old book called “Playing with Infinity.” It is an inexpensive paperback by Dover Press, and it is brilliant. No examples, formulas, or boring stuff. Just plain talk about why math makes sense, and how it uses your imagination.
Make sure you go to a good bookstore and head to the math section, and open lots and lots of math books that don’t look too technical and look at them. There will surely be one that doesn’t intimidate you. I don’t know how old you are, but there is a book that looks like a kid’s book, but really has a ton of good motivating math for adults. It is called “The Number Devil.”It is a terrific book.
Now, the tirade against the way schools teach math:
Administrators and politicians haul out “the big lie” when they feel pressure to show “results.” The lie is called “standards.” The tests they give test you are harder and harder on less and less meaningful information.
Is that fair to you? Don’t you think you deserve a fair explanation of things that matter, before you are tested on them?
I think we should raise the standards for the bureaucrats first.
Before we trash the teachers too hard, let’s see if we can figure out why Mr. Jones can’t teach.
Mr. Jones went through the same school system, more or less, that you did.
On top of that, almost no one wants teachers to earn the same wages that people who use their knowledge only for themselves earn.
Someone who uses their math degree to write computer code for a company that markets mindless entertainment products which are meant to suck your brains out probably makes a lot more money than Mr. Jones. Furthermore, he doesn’t have a classroom full of snot-nosed, spoiled kids to deal with. Nor irate parents who have never even seen their children’s homework assignments, but insist that the teachers “raise the standards.”
So where does the situation stem from?
There are a lot of sources. One way to find the source, is to follow the money. Who gets paid most to do the least? Start with the administration, work you way up to the superintendents, and keep going to the School Boards and the Board of Education. Identify anyone in any of those positions who is not a troublemaker, and you have found a link on the chain that wants power and recognition, but does not want to do the right thing, or even get their hands dirty.
We all know the situation needs work and change. Anyone who isn’t really working for a change is really working not for a change. Anyone who gets paid to tell you what a good job he/she is doing for you is a big-time source of what’s keeping the system from serving you and what’s keeping you serving the system.
Think about this: anyone telling you what a great job they are doing for you is a LIAR. If they were doing a good job, you would be telling them, wouldn’t you? You know which teachers are doing a good job. You know it’s the ones who make you want to work harder. Not the ones who teach to the test. The ones who are honest with you. Not the ones who try to make you feel good about being an idiot. The ones who help you be more intelligent, expose you to more thoughts, teach you to trust your brain, and make you feel good about that.
It is time we held our teachers accountable for being like that. It’s not an easy thing to do, because it’s not fair to hold them accountable for something their bosses don’t understand or value.
One solution for that is to get them some new bosses. Get those suits out of there! Shake them up! Get them to know you are on to them. If enough students and parents take education seriously, we can get rid of the “self-esteem” pushers, and get our kids some meaningful education.
Until parents and students find better ways to understand concepts better than the schools teach them (are you beginning to get cold feet already?) those desk-jockeys will continue to feel comfortable with the status quo.
We have to show them what standards are needed, and hold them to those standards, before they can hold our students to meaningful standards.
How can you start? Obviously not in a school that is not as good as it could be. Here is my greatest tip:
READ BOOKS! Read math books that are not boring textbooks. Get good books from the library. Go to the better teachers after school and ask for extra help. ( Just don’t ask for extra help from a teacher who’s regular help sucks.) Go to a library. Ask a librarian (these are wonderful, underutilized people who don’t grade you!)
We have identified that a huge part of the problem lies with the system. But we are part of the system. If you expect the answer to come from the problem, you may be looking in the wrong direction. You can’t be disappointed if the problem doesn’t solve itself. It is ultimately up to you to bring new input, and hold it up to the system for comparison.
Don’t succumb to the status quo!
Don’t be another victim of the failure of imagination!
Hotcha!
Professor Homunculus
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