The malcontents

In general when I hear people use the word malcontent it’s to refer to someone who’s not only displeased with the way things are but seems to look for reasons to be displeased.  The word is often accompanied by some degree of sneer or disapproval.  The dictionary is a little more charitable with its definition; [...]

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 [...]

Mathless world

I had a little deck of fraction cards sitting on the table when one of my young writing friends was visiting last week. “What are those?” he asked. “Fraction cards for a math game,” I said.  ”Do you like math?” He shrugged.  ”I don’t know. I don’t really get it.” What he meant, actually, was [...]

Falling down on the credibility job

Yesterday I was considering buying a product online so I read some reviews.  One caught my attention because it matched especially well the frustrating experience that had led me to consider buying the product.  The reviewer’s comments were very positive. One of the options I had after reading it was to read her other reviews [...]

Getting tough

I watched a talk this morning by an economist named Tyler Cowen about the impact of stories.  Every time you tell yourself this kind of  story (good guys/bad guys good neighbor/inconsiderate neighbor, good teacher/bad teacher etc.), Cowen says, you’re lowering your own IQ.  He’s taking liberties, of course but his point is well taken nonetheless.  [...]

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 [...]

Diversity of preference

The other day I wrote about inquiring into kids’ resistance in a new way. Here are some follow-up thoughts about why we tend to stay in a rut about how we think about what kids will and won’t do. We seem convinced that the reason kids don’t want to do the things they don’t want [...]

What if resistance is not as it seems?

What if, when confronted with kids’ resistance to things we want them to learn, we stopped asking questions like these: Why does she have to be so oppositional?  Why doesn’t he just do it and get it over with?  Why hasn’t she learned the value of education we’ve tried to instill?  Why is he so [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]