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Today a thoughtful reader left a comment on a previous post (Why You Suck at math Pt. I) Dan Marks commented: Kids suck at math because their teachers only share the secret with the smart kids. Everybody know the ones who are successful wait until a blue moon in an odd-numbered month [...] 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. [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] Mathematics is an invitation to think. Elementary math education is more and more becoming an order to obey. [...] |
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