I was terrible at math in school and looking back, I think it may have impeded my approach to most of the other subjects on the curriculum at the time. Certainly, my high school math teacher Frank Brown would think that I would be the last of his students to ever write on the subject. With all due credit, Frank seemed to understand that I was a math write off but he did not hold that against me. He instead encouraged me in other subjects that were more to my liking, along with extra curricular activities such as sports and high school cadets. I have always appreciated and respected him for that.
Strangely enough though, mathematics has always intrigued me, mainly I guess because of the difficulty I had in mastering the course of study. It was with a degree of understanding then that I read a newspaper report to the effect that only half of Ontario's students met minimum the Grade Six standard for mathematics. It was a form of consolation to learn that even today I would not be alone in my frustration over math, misery enjoying company such as it does. No surprise that while reading and writing skills seem to respond to educational teaching method changes, mathematics remains a stubborn foe of literacy.
A lot of modern teaching methods have been used over the years but the connection between method and improvement do not seem to have the desired effect.
Math and technology wizard Mike Sterling of Southampton knows full well that anyone who has taught anything at any level understands that teaching is hard work. When proficiency comes up in conversations, Sterling has noted that there is a lot of over simplification. "To teach 6th Graders for just an hour on any subject takes a lot of 'mental elbow grease'. I've taught mathematics at the university level and I know teaching 6th Grade minds is a whole other story. It is far more difficult," he states.
"Some help has been given school systems in terms of special education for teachers but it is very difficult to measure the cause and effect of change in mathematical education...It is certainly a stubborn problem."
"Are we expecting too much? Sterling asks. "Would we expect more than 50% of 6th Graders in Ontario to be able to sight read a musical piece and play it on the piano without error? Would we expect 6th Graders to be proficient in drawing so that they could do a life-like portrait of a person or scene?"
In all due respect for teachers, we should be careful in trashing the education system as a whole. Education is an evolving process -- changing (as it should) from generation to generation and keeping pace with world advances. The education system we (well some of us) graduated from was quite different from the one in our parents' day and it will be the same for our children and their children's children.
These days, for instance, conceptual knowledge is emphasized in math classes. Students don’t just memorize times tables. They’re expected to understand and explain their mathematical reasoning. In fact, new standards have removed memorization requirements. Thriving in today’s fast changing world requires breadth of skills rooted in academic competencies such as literacy, numeracy and science, but also including such things as teamwork, critical thinking, communication, persistence, and creativity. These skills are in fact interconnected.
As young people are better able to manage their emotions, for example, their ability to focus helps them learn to read and by working on science projects together they learn how to collaboratively solve problems. This interplay of skills is central to both the concept of breadth of skills as well as to the educational strategies needed to help young people cultivate them. Ultimately, young people today must be agile learners, able to adapt and learn new things quickly in a new fast-changing environment.
Personally, from what I can determine, I think that I would have been a better student in the intellectually challenging classroom of today. Of course, I couldn't be much worse either! So that's not saying much.
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