Navigating that pre-mathless world…

My last post prompted this question from a reader: …I am half way through the Mathematician’s Lament and am totally, utterly passionately sold. But…now what? I’m not a mathematician and fall into the “duh” populace of math paralysis. Who has a curriculum, a study guide, activities prepared to those of us who want to give [...]

Uniqueness is messy.

This American Life’s recent episode on middle school mentions Maria Montessori’s belief that the appropriate environment for a child of middle school age is a farm school. What I’ve read about this idea and many other Montessori ideas sounds wonderful: young people at work and play alongside respectful adults who can teach them to do [...]

Both, and; Milo

Two either-or traditions in education – that one must identify with one discipline over another, and must choose between learning for practical reasons and learning for its “own sake” – can really undermine progress toward the secure livelihood and fulfilled life most people want for their children.   In Adam Gopnik’s recent New Yorker piece [...]

Lessons that aren’t

Sometimes lessons (piano, art, etc.) are great.  You find a great teacher, and the results are just what you were hoping for.  Your child learns a lot and loves the learning. Often, though, lessons are not great.  Often they’re so bad that they turn an interest – something a child was excited to learn, wanted [...]

Beyond suffering

A few weeks ago I wrote about how kids are oriented toward fun, and how adults tend to be wary of this orientation.  It’s one thing to enjoy one’s self, we think, but too much attention on fun seems like it might suggest that a child isn’t motivated to do the hard stuff in life [...]

Tools for a fraction renaissance

Many a parent has told me that if only they’d had a set of fraction tiles when they were young, math would have gone very differently for them. That may even be understating things.  It’s hard to imagine a handful of plastic pieces could significantly change the course of a life, but then again, things [...]

Built in

There’s a pair of kids in my neighborhood I probably wouldn’t recognize without their bike helmets.  Whenever I see them they’re on wheels – scooters, bikes, skateboards, Ripstiks. There’s a pattern in the way they use the equipment at hand.  When it’s new or recently borrowed, they ride it around in front of their houses, [...]

Legacy, Steve-style

A few months ago I meant to post a link to Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford in 2005, in case it hadn’t already found its way around to my blog readers.  I never got around to it, and remembered last night for obvious reasons. The chances that you haven’t seen it are much lower [...]

Beyond Facts & Flashcards

 I was sorting some books the other day and came across a favorite I’d forgotten about: Beyond Facts & Flashcards: Exploring Math with Your Kids.  It’s just how it sounds – a guide to facilitating discovery and building relationships with math that transcend the monotony of most math curricula.  When I came across it, it [...]

Math, in the questions

Oh, math.  It can be so trying.  I was reminded yesterday, though, that the real access to having a peaceful relationship to numbers and the language we speak around them is inquiry.  If we pay as much attention to the questions kids are asking about numbers as we do to the answers they’re coming up [...]