Mathy
The folks at Math for Love are trying to change the way we think about and teach math.
I agree that math is generally poorly taught, but I’m sort of at a loss to describe a core subject I think is well taught. I’d loosely define English classes at the high school and college levels as places designed to make me hate reading. But the particular parallel that strikes me is teaching college composition. It’s very difficult to show students that it’s interesting and fun to make things with words when they struggle to write basic sentences.
Math for Love says, “The point is to teach students to think independently and creatively; everything else should support this goal.” I’d love to do that. But if I do that in my composition course, some of my students won’t be prepared to write essays in college. Teaching math is different from teaching writing. People understand that writing can be used creatively. They just don’t know that they’re allowed to do that themselves.
