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There used to be a lot of things about public schools that you could like. At one time they were even a jewel in society’s crown. But those days have pretty much gone the way of the stegosaurus, bell-bottom pants, and eight–track tapes. [...]
I’m sure there is a very high percentage of the population that doesn’t learn well at all from staring at charts of seemingly random material. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use charts at all. Sometimes it’s nice to supplement real learning with stuff like that. But it should not be the main source. I think dependency on passive learning is a pathology of our modern society, and is a lot more counterproductive than most people realize. [...]
 Can I choke him now?
Photo by foxphotograpy (Edited by Brian)
I have a book sitting in front of me called, Introduction to Mathematical Thinking by Friedrich Waismann; the foreword is by Karl Menger, both of whom I admire greatly.
This book has opened my eyes to something very important about math education. And it’s not because the book is so good (which it is). It’s because after about my fifth attempt at getting through the book I finally realize what it has been that’s impeding my progress.
The impediment is the same impediment that has kept me from learning math and many other things that I have considered beautiful and important, but difficult in my life.
While reading the first chapter of the book again, it finally hit me. There is some really sloppy explaining at a very basic level that, if you are the kind of person that takes things seriously and wants to really understand the deeper meaning, throws a tremendous roadblock into one’s understanding.
This problem is so pervasive in the way so many things are explained in school, at work, or in the real world, that I’m sure you’ve come up against it time and time again. But nobody really calls anyone on it. Or at least not often enough. We let this problem slide by again and again, that we hardly notice it, yet it had a detrimental effect on society, probably since the first caveman tried to explain to his neighbor how to hunt the mastodon (if that’s what they hunted).
The problem is this:
Continue reading Explaining Math Terminology →
As you learn math in school, you are given certain definitions for concepts…But are those definitions correct, complete, useful, or perhaps even misleading and harmful? [...]
Only having one method to accomplish anything handicaps you. Having a second method does not degrade the first. It enhances it. It makes each part greater, and it makes the whole greater than the sum of the parts. [...]
Here’s a dilemma for a lot of parents and other people who are trying to teach their kids math:
The methods that many people use are far superior to the standard algorithms taught in elementary school, yet many benighted administrators and school policy-makers do not recognize this, and insist that students do things “the regular way.”
Of course they don’t realize that other cultures (besides the U.S.) have a different “regular way” that sometimes beat the poop out of our way – which is proven by our low ranking among most other countries of the world in most subjects.
I’m specifically thinking of math. I help teachers, parents and students learn math with methods that magicians have used for years. They are not “magic” – just more effective, which make them seem like magic. Some of these methods are the norm in other cultures (the ones outperform us by far in elementary math).Commonly, someone I am helping will ask, ” But what if we are not allowed to do it that way?” Recently someone wrote in: Continue reading What if we are Not Allowed to do it that Way? →
Here’s my dirty secret – Math Mojo isn’t about any math techniques. It’s about re-humanizing the learning experience. My goal is to get people to realize, “Hey, that’s amazing! I can really learn meaningful stuff if I want to! And it’s always more fun and rewarding than that stuff the drones do!” [...]
The new school year has started in most U.S. public schools, along with all the angst children have of tests, especially math tests.
It doesn’t take much effort for me to remember the abject terror I had of these things back when I was a kid, although it was a long, long time ago – back in the days before Micheal Jackson had a solo career, when Ronald Reagan was an actor, David Copperfield was a Dickens character, Google was Snuffy Smith’s buddy (anybody get that reference?) and the world was a much, much different place.
The terror came from knowing that there was no way in hell I was going to pass those math tests. I never passed math in any grade I can remember, except the year we had geometry with Mr. Golden. The schools I attended were rated wayyyy above the national average, yet I walked into and out of every math class wondering what the hell the teacher was talking about, and why did half the kids get it and half the kids not get it?
I learned all of my math, other than geometry, later in life, and outside of any educational institution. I’m not alone, either. There is case after case of people who are much more competent at mathematics than you or I, who are autodidacts.
Math education has changed since my day, but one of the things that doesn’t seem to have progressed satisfactorily is the way we test students. Standardized tests are still, well, the standard. Standard, of course meaning, among other things, “not exceptional.”
Continue reading New School Year Math Test Thoughts →
Mathematics is an invitation to think. Elementary math education is more and more becoming an order to obey. [...]
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? [...]
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