While I was warned many times in the BEd program that education itself is political, I was still surprised by how something logical like Math can sparks political discussions between conservative and progressive movements.
I first paused when reading about the fear and anxiety which Soviet Sputnik brought to the US education system. I recall rewatching Toy Story and seeing the justification of the popularity of Buzz Lightyear was also sparked by the Sputnik. The mainstream US wants children to be more inspired by a space and scientific figure instead of a traditional cowboy. Ironically, this lead to more pressure for a more rigorous Math curriculum (like Bourbaki) to churn out more college students and subsequently scientists. With hindsight, while it's rational to react in such fashion, problems of Math education with its nuance cannot be 'solved' overnight.
I then paused (and cringed) at the description of Bourbaki's approach to Math education. The highly abstract and diagram-less approach speaks volume to the elitism I have observed in post-secondary education as well. Most university professors as excellent mathematicians themselves, hence expecting each student can (and should) view math in a rigorous and abstract in his/her mind. As a parent (who somehow managed a BSc. in Statistics degree), I also fall into this mindset when teaching my children mathematics. I am actively changing my approach to have Math be more exploratory for them instead of the raw mechanics of just addition and subtraction.
I also paused at the mix of populist media, parent and student lobby groups during the NCTM standard implementation. The decry or support from the lobby group representing different interest groups is reminiscent of the current political climate on just about any topic. For Math education, the messiness of the knowledge transfer process in an inquiry-based education is seen as a shortfall which is then used as a political weapon. In reality, there is often no right or wrong answers, Math educators should always critically think about the nuances of our approaches and decide on which ground to stand on.
Raymond, you mentioned changing your approach to make math more exploratory for your children. How do you think a more exploratory approach in early math education could impact students' long-term relationship with the subject?
ReplyDeleteThank your for your message Malihe. As a parent, my hope of an exploratory approach of early math education is to remove the stigma that math is hard and boring. I wish my children to at least not hate Math when growing up. And this applies to all of my future students.
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