There are at least two other “Aunty Math” or “Auntie Math” persona on the internet.  I like the name so much, I’m just adopting it.  I’ve been helping nieces and nephews, godchildren and neighborhoood people for years, in their math crises, and beyond.  I think I’ve earned the name. 

On these pages, I’ll be posting thoughts about on mathematics education for students, parents, and teachers.  Feel free to ask questions, respond, agree / disagree.  Let’s keep a conversation going.  You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to enjoy doing and talking about math!

Here is an initial post:

In my on-going search for good materials for parents and teachers who want to help young people release and nurture the mathematician inside, I ran up on Mathematics Miseducation: The case against a tired tradition by Derek Stolp.  A veteran junior and senior high school mathematics teacher, the author has worked in elite private schools in the Northeast United States.  He has come to the conclusion that traditional mathematics instruction is in many ways counterproductive.  It actually undermines the very purposes it claims to address. 

 The book is written for the lay person, and some segments are written to his seventh grade students.  If you are a victim of poor mathematics instruction, or if you care about young people who are struggling with traditional mathematics instruction, you will likely get some answers in this book. 

 Here are a few of the points that he makes, and argues very persuasively, complete with footnotes to well-respected research. 

 1)                  Most math teachers take all the fun out of learning math by telling students instead of allowing them the joy of their own discovery.  They start the lesson by telling the class what mathematicians have found, often after years of thinking about it.  The mathematicians had the pleasure of “incubating” the ideas over time, but the students are cheated out of that process.  It’s like telling someone what’s going to happen at the end of the book or the movie, before they’ve had a chance to see the story unfold.

 2)                  American students spend over 95% of their time in math class practicing tasks that the teacher has presented to them.  Japanese learners spend only 40% of time in math class this way.  They spend more time thinking about and inventing solutions. 

 3)                  Learners need time to “sleep on it.”   What math teachers need to do is to give kids a problem, then give them time to think about it unconsciously.  Ever study for a test by reading over the material before going to bed?  Studies show that your unconscious mind puts together various pieces of information and creates ways to recall it, that will last.  Good problems should be worked on over a period of days, not minutes!

4)                  When we force children to study topics for which we have not taken the time to try to whet their appetites, we should not be surprised when they dump it from their memories, as soon as they don’t need the information any more (say, when the course or test is over).  Mr. Stolp is big on giving students challenging problems to work on for several days, and encouraging them to struggle to find solutions in different ways.  They might find they like some of those problems, and their confidence in their ability to do mathematics is likely to grow.

 What I found interesting is that Mr. Stolp has taught the more privileged students in our society; and, he confirms that it is not only the poor and working-class students who are being taught mathematics poorly in our country.  Many affluent school districts report better test scores because their parents pay more than $100. per hour for private tutoring for their kids outside of school hours.  However, when those same students get to college, they run from mathematics just as fast as do the children of poorer families.  It’s my experience that most of the mathematics majors are coming from other countries, not America.

 All of our children deserve the chance to experience mathematics learning in a way that will create and preserve an intuitive appreciation for the subject.  We will have to get rid of a lot of the baggage of the “tired traditions” that hold us back.  We’ll be talking about a lot more of this on these posts.