Curricular quicksand
Raise your hands, all those with fond memories of math class in high school. If a tree falls in the forest…
I’ve been watching, and assisting (in the sense of watching) my son’s efforts with the fascinating world of linear equations. Where what starts out simply: x=y+1 degenerates into a quagmire by the third page. A generation ago, I went down that same twisty pathway. I didn’t enjoy the experience. Now, it’s his turn and he doesn’t seem to have evolved. Maybe evolution is just a theory, but there seems to be a society of curricular specialists (politely known as math teachers) that refuse to evolve. What was painful to them (and me) must ever remain so…
Now, don’t feed me that pap about how it expands the mind and aids in the ability to reason. IT just guarantees that all over the globe, students learn that school can be an unpleasant lifestyle. In the thirty-plus years since my purgatory of math class, we have developed “graphing calculators”, and we have proven that unless you a) teach a math class or b) parent, or c) are hired as a rocket scientist you will probably not come face-to-face with theoretical mathematics ever again.
In nature, we post signs to warn of a quicksand trap (at least, in the cartoons). In education, we call it Math 101 and try to suck the energy out of a group of youth.
