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My armchair take of the situation is that the administrators of K-12 education are too focused on the potential value of kids actually using these math framewor
by yakkityyak 5y ago
My armchair take of the situation is that the administrators of K-12 education are too focused on the potential value of kids actually using these math frameworks instead of how they sort of rewire how to logically reason about things.
I'm having trouble finding the right words to describe myself, but I vividly remember how many moments of epiphany I had when I took Calculus and Linear Algebra. I don't directly use either of them at all in my day job, but I feel like they were foundational in developing reasoning skills.
- leephillips 5y agoThis is, I believe, the fundamental problem. Administrators, and, to some degree, math teachers themselves, don’t like or understand math. They constantly talk about what it’s “for”, as if math class serves a purpose similar to car repair shop class. They seem to understand that you can have an English class treating poetry, or a history class, without needing to justify them with practical applications. I think most of this bunch have no concept of studying math for its own sake, and the idea that you might do so for enjoyment would probably seem incomprehensibly bizarre. During my brief stints teaching math in high schools, my attitude was that I was guiding students along the path to becoming people—members of their civilization.