Math: A typical second, after 12 years of unschooling
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Math: A typical second, after 12 years of unschooling
Holly came in and said "To find 75 % of 11, can I somehow multiply 75 times
11?"
I had to think a minute. I knew she could, and I knew it had to do with
decimals, and my school fear came in and then I stopped myself and thought
"what does it look like with $10?"
And then it was really easy, and I showed her yes, it was really multiplying
it by .75, and she said "I thought so."
She understood it better than I did, because I had lots of people complicate
it for me and scare me with it and give me opportunities for failure and
embarrassment.
Holly figured it out by herself, gradually, over her life. And her
explanation was better than my teachers' explanation. "You multiply it by
75, somehow."
Sandra
Holly came in and said "To find 75 % of 11, can I somehow multiply 75 times
11?"
I had to think a minute. I knew she could, and I knew it had to do with
decimals, and my school fear came in and then I stopped myself and thought
"what does it look like with $10?"
And then it was really easy, and I showed her yes, it was really multiplying
it by .75, and she said "I thought so."
She understood it better than I did, because I had lots of people complicate
it for me and scare me with it and give me opportunities for failure and
embarrassment.
Holly figured it out by herself, gradually, over her life. And her
explanation was better than my teachers' explanation. "You multiply it by
75, somehow."
Sandra