Well, a lot of people came to America hoping they would need math less. Americans stink at it because they feel they don't need it and when they feel otherwise it will be too late. It's easy enough to encourage seduction too math as the article suggests, but the real challenge is somehow blocking out more and more distractions (other options) when you can't reduce them because freedom and democracy are national ideals. Math can be interesting but how do you keep it more interesting than video games when you don't have a culture willing to regulate them as harshly as South Korea or China? How do you keep people from following Howard Hughes and having fewer friends, staying mostly home, and watching an astonishing amount of recorded video? Howard Hughes was hardly someone who could do nothing with math, but there are a lot of pitfalls in America to which the schools are blinded or can't do anything about. How do the schools, with such little authority, reduce problem behavior AND help something more difficult and at least supposediy more healthful fill the void. This is the problem with the democratic subject that Plato described: in democracy so many behaviors must be acceptable / not disqualifying for power and respect that people cycle through a great diversity of them. This is far more a pressing issue than whether teachers already trying to teach math do it this way or this other way: if they still have to compete with more and more cell phones and games and other entertainments and Babel, they will get diminishing returns.
Why Do Americans Stink at Math?
171–180 of 257 posts
Re: Why Do Americans Stink at Math?
#172The key to math education is practice. Even drilling, maybe. Other fields deal with concepts more or less mapped to the real world. Physics is about real world, more or less (right until you get to quants, then the level of abstraction rises dramatically). Same goes for biology, and even computer science in general. There, you can rely on words, which usually convey meaning. In math, you can't rely on words. You'll n…
In a way I don't disagree. It depends on the person though. For a person that struggles with the abstractions, drilling is necessary because it forces one to spend enough time with the subject until it "clicks."
Re: Why Do Americans Stink at Math?
#173I teach math. I am impressed that when you read these comments, very few of them show evidence of having read the article. The article is about experience with actual students, with ones who have a real knack for the subject and would learn it despite what any teacher did, and with ones who waver. There proves to be a better way, which the article describes in various ways, including as "sense-making." One of the pro…
We need a culture of listening and less of speaking.
Re: Why Do Americans Stink at Math?
#174Might it have something to do with this? https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/majority-of-u... I'm no fan of the American education system, having suffered through it a full 12 years, but I have to believe it's not the primary cause here. Math is hard, and near impossible if you're stressed. I excelled at math, despite relatively boring math curricula. Why? Because I wasn't stressed as a kid, my family was…
This article debunks the Washington Post claim about a majority of kids in public school being in poverty. http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/01/no-...
By failing at reading comprehension. There's a vast difference between public school students and school-aged children. In Chicago, only 10% of public school students are white[1], with a 45% white population[2] (for example.) Conflating the two things seems almost willfully deceptive.
edit:
[1] http://www.cps.edu/About_CPS/At-a-glance/Pages/Stats_and_fac...
[2] http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/1714000
Re: Why Do Americans Stink at Math?
#175I teach math. I am impressed that when you read these comments, very few of them show evidence of having read the article. The article is about experience with actual students, with ones who have a real knack for the subject and would learn it despite what any teacher did, and with ones who waver. There proves to be a better way, which the article describes in various ways, including as "sense-making." One of the pro…
> "One of the problems here is that everybody has a pre-formed opinion and does not seem to want to risk having to modify it with the evidence of experience." That's probably the most accurate description of HN comments I've seen. People see a headline related to something they already have pre-existing beliefs about, they read a few paragraphs just to make sure they're on point, and then they jump straight to the co…
> I'm willing to wager $10000 that a significant majority of HN commenters in any thread do not read the article in full, and even among those who do, a smaller minority actually post comments addressing the meat of what the article is saying.
I'm curious... did you read the article in full? I'm not saying you're wrong but it would be funny if you didn't read it as well :)
One of the things I like about Scientific America is they have an Executive Summary at the start of the article. So while folks may not have the details they at least have the correct gist.
I skimmed the article. Do I have pre-formed opinions... I do. Would they have changed after reading the article in detail ... they might have if there was some hard evidence other than the obvious stat that the US is bad in math.
My question (I'm having my first child with in a month) is what do I do as a parent other than be patient:
"Training teachers in a new way of thinking will take time, and American parents will need to be patient. In Japan, the transition did not happen overnight. When Takahashi began teaching in the new style, parents initially complained about the young instructor experimenting on their children."
My father forced my brother and I into Kumon. Kumon was hardly imaginative. Did it work? I think a little bit.
Education techniques particularly math has changed so many times that it is beginning to look like diet and exercises. We are all a little jaded so I can understand the plethora of pre-formed opinions.
Re: Why Do Americans Stink at Math?
#176Here in America, we call people who excel at football "heroes", and people who excel at math "nerds".
Re: Why Do Americans Stink at Math?
#177The key to math education is practice. Even drilling, maybe. Other fields deal with concepts more or less mapped to the real world. Physics is about real world, more or less (right until you get to quants, then the level of abstraction rises dramatically). Same goes for biology, and even computer science in general. There, you can rely on words, which usually convey meaning. In math, you can't rely on words. You'll n…
I whole-heartedly disagree with this. A.) For the obvious not everyone learns the same way B.)Drills and practice are important, but being able to actually apply your math skills is also important. I remember in high school when there were math word problems so many people HATED them. These were people in honors/college level classes and they struggled to actually apply the math to situations. Find how fast the train…
> I got SO bored with drills/memorization.
That's because you're lazy. I know you really genuinely think you aren't, but you are... I'm dealing with this same mindset in my 13-year-old son right now. That's like saying you want to get in shape, but the repetitious method of lifting weights up and down is just SO boring.
Re: Why Do Americans Stink at Math?
#178The key to math education is practice. Even drilling, maybe. Other fields deal with concepts more or less mapped to the real world. Physics is about real world, more or less (right until you get to quants, then the level of abstraction rises dramatically). Same goes for biology, and even computer science in general. There, you can rely on words, which usually convey meaning. In math, you can't rely on words. You'll n…
I disagree with this. I remember when I was in primary school and I was confused about how to multiply decimals. At that level I didn't even know what it would mean to multiply a decimal: how can you have 5, 0.2 times? I asked the teacher and instead of explaining the concept properly, i.e. 0.5 is half etc., I was just told to multiply the other way around, by adding up 0.2, 5 times - and do drills with that. It's th…
Well properly understanding why certain number systems work (fractions, negative numbers) requires some understanding of set theory, and the great mathematicians of the past struggled with a lot of these concepts we take for granted (negative numbers, complex numbers). It's unrealistic to expect high school teachers to understand these foundations.
Re: Why Do Americans Stink at Math?
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
I whole-heartedly disagree with this. A.) For the obvious not everyone learns the same way B.)Drills and practice are important, but being able to actually apply your math skills is also important. I remember in high school when there were math word problems so many people HATED them. These were people in honors/college level classes and they struggled to actually apply the math to situations. Find how fast the train…
> I got SO bored with drills/memorization. That's because you're lazy. I know you really genuinely think you aren't, but you are... I'm dealing with this same mindset in my 13-year-old son right now. That's like saying you want to get in shape, but the repetitious method of lifting weights up and down is just SO boring.
That's like saying I'm lazy because I prefer sometimes doing a dance class over just running on the treadmill.
There's more than one way to do things. That said, drills are important. You do have to practice at some point. But if it's the -only- thing that's used, as it is in some classes I've taken, it's boring and harder to retain the information. And in my personal experience, I've seen that sticking with -only- that method can sometimes be counterproductive. It's avoiding the depth of understanding needed for actually applying the math.
Re: Why Do Americans Stink at Math?
#180I teach math. I am impressed that when you read these comments, very few of them show evidence of having read the article. The article is about experience with actual students, with ones who have a real knack for the subject and would learn it despite what any teacher did, and with ones who waver. There proves to be a better way, which the article describes in various ways, including as "sense-making." One of the pro…
> very few of them show evidence of having read the article Americans stink at reading, too.
Humans stink at reading.