Read “A Mathematician’s Lament” by Paul Lockhart, it’s free online.
He lays out a brutal critique of the modern mathematical curriculum in the Unites States but in summary:
We teach mathematics to children as a huge set of rules to memorize and use to get good scores on standardized tests so that they can “get into good colleges.”
We don’t treat mathematics with any reverence or care, like we do with the arts. Math is taught as a bunch of arbitrary brute facts that old wise men came up with centuries ago and we spend all of elementary and high school relentlessly drilling them into students heads no matter how much pain and suffering it causes.
There is no actual exploration of mathematical beauty, or mystery. There isn’t any discussion of the underlying philosophy of mathematics, or how any of the rich and fascinating history of its development as a field. It’s like if we taught music as just a way to write notes on a page in certain time signatures and keys, but never actually let students listen to a piece of music or discuss the great composers or cultural movements of music through the ages.
Of course that seems ridiculous to people, but for some reason when we do that exact same thing with mathematics, nobody bats an eye. In fact, people think it would be strange to do it any other way.
Seconded (from Finland). Math teaching is still boring and it doesn’t help that (too) many teachers don’t appreciate pedagogical studies that go with the curriculum in the university. It has its problems, but rarely do the students want to engage with what math education could be.
Coupled with society’s expectations on what math education is, it’s really difficult for a teacher to change course. Even the students have the expectation that they should always be doing exercises from books and everything else is ‘useless’. It is really a deep rooted issue.
I think this is it, tbh. I have to constantly remind my kids that math isn’t memorizing the answer, it’s knowing how to look at a problem, follow the rules, and figure it out. And it always seems so very arbitrary to them, as it used to for me as well.
Read “A Mathematician’s Lament” by Paul Lockhart, it’s free online.
He lays out a brutal critique of the modern mathematical curriculum in the Unites States but in summary:
We teach mathematics to children as a huge set of rules to memorize and use to get good scores on standardized tests so that they can “get into good colleges.”
We don’t treat mathematics with any reverence or care, like we do with the arts. Math is taught as a bunch of arbitrary brute facts that old wise men came up with centuries ago and we spend all of elementary and high school relentlessly drilling them into students heads no matter how much pain and suffering it causes.
There is no actual exploration of mathematical beauty, or mystery. There isn’t any discussion of the underlying philosophy of mathematics, or how any of the rich and fascinating history of its development as a field. It’s like if we taught music as just a way to write notes on a page in certain time signatures and keys, but never actually let students listen to a piece of music or discuss the great composers or cultural movements of music through the ages.
Of course that seems ridiculous to people, but for some reason when we do that exact same thing with mathematics, nobody bats an eye. In fact, people think it would be strange to do it any other way.
Seconded (from Finland). Math teaching is still boring and it doesn’t help that (too) many teachers don’t appreciate pedagogical studies that go with the curriculum in the university. It has its problems, but rarely do the students want to engage with what math education could be.
Coupled with society’s expectations on what math education is, it’s really difficult for a teacher to change course. Even the students have the expectation that they should always be doing exercises from books and everything else is ‘useless’. It is really a deep rooted issue.
I think this is it, tbh. I have to constantly remind my kids that math isn’t memorizing the answer, it’s knowing how to look at a problem, follow the rules, and figure it out. And it always seems so very arbitrary to them, as it used to for me as well.