This article kinda helps validate my argument that the reason people do so poorly on math is because it’s taught so poorly. Yes, I know that’s a profound and utterly non-intuitive concept and all…but if teachers are too dumb to know math how can they teach it?
Naturally, I’m somewhat biased since I don’t think math is all that difficult of a concept to grasp. Then again, at work I am apparently the only one who can tell the difference between “one” and “more than one” (as evidenced by the fact that the batches of stuff I have to run that are supposed to contain “singles” — that is, one item per transaction — often have “multies” — that is, more than one item per transaction — smuggled into them). Now I know what you’re thinking: The philosophical problem of the one and the many was solved in roughly 1996.
B.C.
Nevertheless, it remains a difficult concept for some to grasp, for reasons I cannot begin to fathom (mainly because they’re irrational, and thus not “reasons” in the first place). Anywho, all that to get back to the main point which is: while I don’t think math is all that difficult, I fully understand the fact that there are those who do. These people are dumb, and I have to work with them. Sigh.
J/k.
Actually, I do think the basics of math take a while to grasp, kinda like forming the foundations of logic. Once it “clicks” however, the rest becomes fairly simple. The problem with math (and logic) is of course that teachers make it as hard as possible to understand the mechanics of math. They want to teach you the right “method” but the right method without understanding what the method does is the wrong approach. Hence the article’s statement:
Teacher candidates know their multiplication tables, but “they don’t come to us knowing why multiplication works the way it does,” said Denise Mewborn, who heads the University of Georgia department of math and science education.
And this is the problem. This is also why I continue to rebell against the notion that students must “show their work” when doing math; because that just means that students must “follow the correct method” when the only “correct” method is “whatever method gets the right answer.” And I’m sorry, but if you have a deeper insight into how numbers work than your teacher, why should you be penalized for doing math faster, easier, and more accurately just because your teacher can’t understand what you just did?
