Teaching Maths

[poliphilo]

A new report, commissioned by the Tories, is recommending that children be taught maths until they're 18.  I so disagree.

Firstly, because lots of people are number blind and it's cruel to keep them slaving away. ( I'm one. Thanks to some very good teaching I passed my "O" level at the second attempt, dropped the subject with a sigh of relief and promptly went back to counting on my fingers.) 

Secondly because these days we've got calculators. 

Leave maths to those with an aptitude for it (like Ailz). 

Comments

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

Since when did Benecol salesperson Carol Vorderman, who IIRC got a third from Sidney Sussex, become some kind of expert in the teaching of mathematics?

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

Well said. Which subject is the hardest to recruit teachers for and also generally has the worst recorded rates of behaviour? Maths. A colleague of mine at OSA told me that he "hated" being a maths teacher, "Because kids hate maths."

The solution is perhaps to re-vamp the curriculum to ensure that kids are taught maths in a way thats applicable to them - not force everyone to take it until they're 18.

[dadi.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. I always was envious that in school, people with dyslexia got special treatment and their language dis-abilities were taken into account during tests, while nothing like that was applied to what now is known as dyscalculia but back then was simply called laziness or stupidity. Only with the most dreadful acrobatics I was able to finish high school, as for us it WAS mandatory until the 12th class. I still have nightmares about math lessons and tests.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Maths is not arithmetic. Maths is not about numbers, it's about patterns.

Just because maths is taught badly in a lot of schools doesn't mean it shouldn't be taught at all, it just means that maths teaching should be done better!!

I have absolutely no "aptitude" for maths (whatever that means), yet I hit lucky, had amazing teachers at secondary school and passed A-level at the second attempt with a grade C. If I can do A-level maths, anyone can. Seriously.

Sorry, but you hit a hot button there.

[veronikos.livejournal.com]

I'm with heleninwales. Erm...metaphorically speaking. I started teaching my kids geometric patterns very early on, showing them how the universe is constructed out of only 7 shapes, and then a limited amount of combinations of those shapes. I have a lovely drawing from my son Noah, when he was 3 or 4 years old, showing the 5 elemental shapes and their colors. When they were a little older, I taught them how the 7 root shapes are governed by the 7 planets. And from there, we went on to planetary rulership, and more complex shape combinations. Each number is really like a fascinating friend, each with his or her own characteristics.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

I earn my living programming and I'm mediocre at maths.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

Calculators, like slide rules and log tables, still require those using them to have a basic grasp of maths. That said, if schools have failed to install that by the age of 16, I doubt a further two years of compulsory education will serve much purpose.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Doesn't that really depend on what "teaching math" (I'm American, so I get to use the singular) means?

I mean, the term "math" covers a HUGE range of things, many of which are highly useful for anybody. Basic arithmetic is useful, even if you tend to have a calculator. The REALLY useful thing to be taught in math is what I like to think of as "bullshit detection" -- people throw numbers around which, on a moment's thought, are clearly just plain wrong. If someone says that, for instance, sixty thousand people a year are killed in satanic rituals -- and, yes, people DO say that -- you have to have a gut feeling for "is that number bullshit or not?"

And math education can help that.

In the United States, a conservative candidate for President is saying that we should be grateful to the super-wealthy, because they pay 60% of the taxes in the United States.

Proper math, and for that matter, science, education would teach people to wonder what the context was -- okay, they pay 60% of the taxes . . . but they have 80% of the money. So that's actually LESS than what would seem to be fair. . .

If math education means training people to understand numbers well enough to be informed and active citizens, then it is absolutely useful.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

If I recall correctly, mathematicians are happier and live longer than most other professions. In a better world, I would have been a mathematician myself. The course I took in number theory and finite probability was about as much fun as I've had with my clothes on. Euclidean geometry makes me almost as happy.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

I flunked high school Algebra. Years passed and I went on to college, where two semesters of math were required for any kind of degree. After a lot of hard work on my own, I got an "A". Needless to say I was overjoyed, because I had believed all my life that I was completely disabled in mathematics. I guess it was just a question of readiness. I did not continue with math beyond the required course.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I've worked in a so called quantitative discipline for 25 years and a litle elementary algebra was worthwhile or calculating molar concentrations and the like, and the concepts of differential calculus e.g. acceleration is the rate of change of speed over time... other than that most of what I learned at O level has been completely useless. Going on to age 18 would have been a total waste of time. What might have been useful is sone logical thinking around the use and misuse of statistics.