math and what it's good for
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/6/02 9:58:27 PM, PSoroosh@... writes:
<< he said, "So this is sort
of like a line graph right?" I said, "Yes, it IS a line graph," and he said,
"I know how to do that, you find the slope." As if that was the point of it.
Absolutely no comprehension of any meaning of what he was doing. Zero. >>
But "meaning" to him was performance and grade-getting.
I don't know HOW many times I asked math teachers "What is this GOOD for?"
and they were unable or unwilling to tell me. Maybe that line-graph gifted
kid will grow up to be a math professor!! Or a midschool teacher.
Holly and I were playing "Math Arena" last night, and went through several of
the games but stayed longest on one called "Array Reversal." It's filling in
a 10x10 set of little squares by choosing one of three numbers and
"mouse-marking" a rectangle of them. If you choose 20, you can select a 4x5
block, or a 2x10 block, in either direction. Holly beats me at that game.
She doesn't know what to do with 27, so she skips it. She doesn't like 24
because 2x12 isn't an option, so she skips it. She likes 30 fine. She LOVES
6. It's a time-race to fill the grid. I "know times tables" better than
Holly, but Holly has no shame about taking two easy moves instead of one
glory move like "32."
In school they taught us to add columns of numbers. I guess that was so we
could become bookkeepers and work by hand as though it were 1915. But even
my aged father-in-law has a mechanical adding machine. (He hasn't upgraded
to a calculator.) He is a number-saving fanatic, and doesn't add columns of
numbers.
But because they taught it in school I thought it was "the right way" and the
only good way. So I hid the fact that my quickest way of adding was to add
two numbers together, and then add the third, and then add the fourth.
I took up with a math guy, and eventually married him. I confessed one day
that I didn't really add columns of numbers. He said "Oh, you do it like a
computer does it. Like a calculator does."
Well cool! Only I had spent years ashamed of doing it "wrong," of not doing
it the way Miss Brown TOLD me to do it when I was eight years old.
There's another story for your math trauma collection, Pam.
Sandra
<< he said, "So this is sort
of like a line graph right?" I said, "Yes, it IS a line graph," and he said,
"I know how to do that, you find the slope." As if that was the point of it.
Absolutely no comprehension of any meaning of what he was doing. Zero. >>
But "meaning" to him was performance and grade-getting.
I don't know HOW many times I asked math teachers "What is this GOOD for?"
and they were unable or unwilling to tell me. Maybe that line-graph gifted
kid will grow up to be a math professor!! Or a midschool teacher.
Holly and I were playing "Math Arena" last night, and went through several of
the games but stayed longest on one called "Array Reversal." It's filling in
a 10x10 set of little squares by choosing one of three numbers and
"mouse-marking" a rectangle of them. If you choose 20, you can select a 4x5
block, or a 2x10 block, in either direction. Holly beats me at that game.
She doesn't know what to do with 27, so she skips it. She doesn't like 24
because 2x12 isn't an option, so she skips it. She likes 30 fine. She LOVES
6. It's a time-race to fill the grid. I "know times tables" better than
Holly, but Holly has no shame about taking two easy moves instead of one
glory move like "32."
In school they taught us to add columns of numbers. I guess that was so we
could become bookkeepers and work by hand as though it were 1915. But even
my aged father-in-law has a mechanical adding machine. (He hasn't upgraded
to a calculator.) He is a number-saving fanatic, and doesn't add columns of
numbers.
But because they taught it in school I thought it was "the right way" and the
only good way. So I hid the fact that my quickest way of adding was to add
two numbers together, and then add the third, and then add the fourth.
I took up with a math guy, and eventually married him. I confessed one day
that I didn't really add columns of numbers. He said "Oh, you do it like a
computer does it. Like a calculator does."
Well cool! Only I had spent years ashamed of doing it "wrong," of not doing
it the way Miss Brown TOLD me to do it when I was eight years old.
There's another story for your math trauma collection, Pam.
Sandra
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/7/02 4:31:44 AM Pacific Standard Time,
SandraDodd@... writes:
we should know how to do paper-and-pencil arithmetic really well because some
day we might be taking the SAT or something and the batteries in our
calculators might give out. These days you can use a calculator on the SAT.
The interesting thing is that a calculator will not help you for most of the
problems. What WILL help is good mathematical intuition, not arithmetic -
they're not the same thing.
Even if you can do long division in your head, you may not know that
it's based on the distributive property. The reason so many parents and
educators stress basic arithmetic is because they think it will teach you
something deeper about math than using a calculator, but I don't buy it. I
would bet a lot of money that few kids who know long division would be able
to tell you it's an appplication of the distributive property.
If the educational establishment was actually serious about the "you
might need this some day" excuse for teaching you something, we'd be learning
very different things. There are few things more essential to life than
growing food. What if there were another national emergency like WWII, and
people had to turn their yards into gardens? You might need to know how to
make your own bread or slaughter an animal some day, but no one is learning
that in schools these days.
I hope I'm making sense.
If I had to guess I would say that fewer than 10% of people need to
know any math beyond the 7th grade level. And a lot of people would be
better off if they understood 7th grade math in greater depth and how to
apply it better. So what is math beyond 7th grade good for? I think it's a
subconscious conspiracy. Schools don't teach higher math because kids need
to know it. The neat thing about math is that for grading and judging young
peoples' "intelligence," it's very handy. Your answer is either right or
wrong. It's not messy, like history. Educators can pretend that they are
being very objective (and therefore fair) when grading math tests. Nevermind
that the emphasis on higher math is a subjective choice on the part of
educators.
Loren Kelley
Homeschooling father
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
SandraDodd@... writes:
> In school they taught us to add columns of numbers. I guess that was so weThis is a major peeve of mine. I had a chemistry teacher tell us once that
> could become bookkeepers and work by hand as though it were 1915. But even
> my aged father-in-law has a mechanical adding machine. (He hasn't upgraded
> to a calculator.) He is a number-saving fanatic, and doesn't add columns
> of
> numbers
we should know how to do paper-and-pencil arithmetic really well because some
day we might be taking the SAT or something and the batteries in our
calculators might give out. These days you can use a calculator on the SAT.
The interesting thing is that a calculator will not help you for most of the
problems. What WILL help is good mathematical intuition, not arithmetic -
they're not the same thing.
Even if you can do long division in your head, you may not know that
it's based on the distributive property. The reason so many parents and
educators stress basic arithmetic is because they think it will teach you
something deeper about math than using a calculator, but I don't buy it. I
would bet a lot of money that few kids who know long division would be able
to tell you it's an appplication of the distributive property.
If the educational establishment was actually serious about the "you
might need this some day" excuse for teaching you something, we'd be learning
very different things. There are few things more essential to life than
growing food. What if there were another national emergency like WWII, and
people had to turn their yards into gardens? You might need to know how to
make your own bread or slaughter an animal some day, but no one is learning
that in schools these days.
I hope I'm making sense.
If I had to guess I would say that fewer than 10% of people need to
know any math beyond the 7th grade level. And a lot of people would be
better off if they understood 7th grade math in greater depth and how to
apply it better. So what is math beyond 7th grade good for? I think it's a
subconscious conspiracy. Schools don't teach higher math because kids need
to know it. The neat thing about math is that for grading and judging young
peoples' "intelligence," it's very handy. Your answer is either right or
wrong. It's not messy, like history. Educators can pretend that they are
being very objective (and therefore fair) when grading math tests. Nevermind
that the emphasis on higher math is a subjective choice on the part of
educators.
Loren Kelley
Homeschooling father
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
KT
>Care to explain "distributive property" to those of us who were reduced
>
> I
>would bet a lot of money that few kids who know long division would be able
>to tell you it's an appplication of the distributive property.
>
to tears by long division in 4th grade? ;)
Tuck
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/8/02 9:10:46 AM, bubhouse@... writes:
<< There are few things more essential to life than
growing food. What if there were another national emergency like WWII, and
people had to turn their yards into gardens? You might need to know how to
make your own bread or slaughter an animal some day, but no one is learning
that in schools these days. >>
REALLY GOOD POINT.
I think the reason they want all kids to come out of high school knowing as
much math and science as possible is so we can whup the Soviets.
Seriously. The educational establishment gets something into their
slow-moving "head" and they have NO mechanism for letting go of it, ever.
In the 60's math and science were our "victory gardens," what each person
could do to contribute to national security. Now they do it because they've
just "always" done it.
And if we had the system some countries have where there was clearly a
college-bound track, and then a vocational track (splitting out at puberty,
generally), more kids would be prepared for "real life," but many would NOT
be prepared to become surgeons, and America needs things to be equal and fair
and equitable and so EVERYONE can become a surgeon. Only those who are lazy
don't bother. So being a surgeon is seen as virtue, and being "just" most
other things is seen as sloth.
Our system isn't so great at all. But it's "fair."
Yuck.
Sandra
<< There are few things more essential to life than
growing food. What if there were another national emergency like WWII, and
people had to turn their yards into gardens? You might need to know how to
make your own bread or slaughter an animal some day, but no one is learning
that in schools these days. >>
REALLY GOOD POINT.
I think the reason they want all kids to come out of high school knowing as
much math and science as possible is so we can whup the Soviets.
Seriously. The educational establishment gets something into their
slow-moving "head" and they have NO mechanism for letting go of it, ever.
In the 60's math and science were our "victory gardens," what each person
could do to contribute to national security. Now they do it because they've
just "always" done it.
And if we had the system some countries have where there was clearly a
college-bound track, and then a vocational track (splitting out at puberty,
generally), more kids would be prepared for "real life," but many would NOT
be prepared to become surgeons, and America needs things to be equal and fair
and equitable and so EVERYONE can become a surgeon. Only those who are lazy
don't bother. So being a surgeon is seen as virtue, and being "just" most
other things is seen as sloth.
Our system isn't so great at all. But it's "fair."
Yuck.
Sandra
Betsy
**I think the reason they want all kids to come out of high school
knowing as much math and science as possible is so we can whup the Soviets.
Seriously. The educational establishment gets something into their
slow-moving "head" and they have NO mechanism for letting go of it, ever.**
Ooooooh! Slow-moving head -- love it!
It makes me visualize a **stegosaurus** with a lumbering gait, a
wiiiiide turning radius, and a brain the size of a walnut!
Betsy
knowing as much math and science as possible is so we can whup the Soviets.
Seriously. The educational establishment gets something into their
slow-moving "head" and they have NO mechanism for letting go of it, ever.**
Ooooooh! Slow-moving head -- love it!
It makes me visualize a **stegosaurus** with a lumbering gait, a
wiiiiide turning radius, and a brain the size of a walnut!
Betsy
Tia Leschke
>Now *that* needed a spew alert on it. Good thing I had finished my coffee.
>Ooooooh! Slow-moving head -- love it!
>
>It makes me visualize a **stegosaurus** with a lumbering gait, a
>wiiiiide turning radius, and a brain the size of a walnut!
Tia
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
*********************************************
Tia Leschke
leschke@...
On Vancouver Island