Anyone free to proof an article i'm sending to Lew?

Reply

Jeremiah Dyke Posted: Sun, Apr 3 2011 9:08 PM

rated by 0 users

I'm always making errors, so thanks for any help

A Word-Problem World: A World of Mathematical Meaning

Homeschooler’s have a rare and terrific opportunity denied to most math students throughout the country. Homeschooler’s posses the ability to finally relate to mathematics in both a meaningful and instructive way by creating applications to which a solution has relevance to the student; a solution worth deriving. 

The typical public educator will complain that their students care nothing about how they derived an answer, they simply want to get there. However, what you normally never here from those on the front lines of education is why they are asking this question, or, is it even a question worth answering? It is true that students may be apathetic toward how they derived their answers, yet, what we fail to understand is this reflects less so on them and more so on the quality of the question. Good educators have become masters in making questions relevant to their students. Students do much better when the application matters, in fact, if the question is interesting enough, they may be excited to answer it! Simply adding colorful pictures to a page of drill-and-kill exercises will make the students work harder than without it. 

(Is it wrong to expect more from a math class?)

Thus, what we have is that students today are too far removed from the study of math. For most, math is simply a cluster of slightly varied problems to be done in repetition until mastered. At best, the student can hope that someone, somewhere, will ask them for help on their homework problems, as far as possessing the ability to solve a real-life problem...forget about it!  So, page after page, worksheet after worksheet, drill after drill, students dull their pencils in hopes of never seeing their teachers’ red ink. What nonsense is this? How are students to learn meaning by simply regurgitating steps--as if mathematics were a large set of multiplication tables to be memorized?

This is where the homeschooling advantage comes in!

My suggestion to a student or homeschooling parent is to eliminate every math problem from your textbook, and I dare say your life, except those with a purpose i.e. those that involve a purposeful application. Make every problem, from k-12, a real life, application, word problem, that involves using math and analysis to reach a solution. 

It’s no longer what is “2 + 3”?, instead it’s, “if I had two apples and added three more how many apples would I now have”?  

It’s no longer, what percentage is 12/15? It’s, “If Edward always gets 100% on Biology tests, Bella, however, answered 12 out of 15 questions correct. What percentage did Bella get right?”(click for more twilight math)

Furthermore, there is no need to follow our state’s math curriculum. Math need not be segregated into little subjects called pre-algebra, algebra, algebra II, geometry, etc. Follow your interests! If you, like Patri Friedman (son of David Friedman, grandson of Milton Friedman) find yourself enjoying probability more than other math subjects simply because it gives you an advantage in board games with your friends, then pursue it! You are simply filling your toolbox with more math skills, and, eventually you will find benefit in other branches of math.

Do this and not only will your students or children have a better understanding of mathematical principles, they will finally see the relevance in math and you know, they may actually start liking it!

Jeremiah Dyke is an adjunct professor of mathematics at LFCC, author of the children's book “Do Natural Numbers Ever Wonder What’s UnNatural” and founder of Hands on Math. Contact him if you would like to brainstorm 

Reply

Frederique Bastiao replied on Sun, Apr 3 2011 9:38 PM

rated by 0 users

English is not my first language so I may have missed some subtle grammatical mistakes, but I managed to correct some spelling mistakes and some not so subtle grammatical mistakes.

A Word-Problem World: A World of Mathematical Meaning

Homeschoolers (correct plural)have a rare and terrific opportunity denied to most math students throughout the country. Homeschoolers (correct plural) possess (here you intended to use the verb possess, not the adverb) the ability to finally relate to mathematics in both a meaningful and instructive way by creating applications to which a solution has relevance to the student; a solution worth deriving.

The typical public educator will complain that their students care nothing about how they derived an answer, they simply want to get there. However, what you normally never hear (not here, it’s “hear”, the verb) from those on the front lines of education is why they are asking this question, or, is it even a question worth answering? It is true that students may be apathetic toward how they derived their answers, yet, what we fail to understand is this reflects less so on them and more so on the quality of the question. Good educators have become masters in making questions relevant to their students. Students do much better when the application matters, in fact, if the question is interesting enough, they may be excited to answer it! Simply adding colorful pictures to a page of drill-and-kill exercises will make the students work harder than without them (colorful pictures, more than one thing, so use “them”).

(Is it wrong to expect more from a math class?)

Thus, what we have is that students today are too far removed from the study of math. For most, math is simply a cluster of slightly varied problems to be done in repetition until mastered. At best, the student can hope that someone, somewhere, will ask them for help on their homework problems, as far as possessing the ability to solve a real-life problem...forget about it!  So, page after page, worksheet after worksheet, drill after drill, students dull their pencils in hopes of never seeing their teachers’ red ink. What nonsense is this? How are students to learn meaning by simply regurgitating steps--as if mathematics were a large set of multiplication tables to be memorized?

This is where the homeschooling advantage comes in!

My suggestion to a student or homeschooling parent is to eliminate every math problem from your textbook, and I dare say (I think the word “from” would fit well here) your life, except those with a purpose i.e. those that involve a purposeful application. (Make every problem, from k-12, a real life, application, word problem, that involves using math and analysis to reach a solution. ) -> I really think you should re-write that, I don’t understand what it means, maybe some commas are misplaced.

 It’s no longer what is “2 + 3”? (no need to use a comma here) instead it’s, “if I had two apples and added three more how many apples would I now have”? 

 It’s no longer, what percentage is 12/15? It’s, “If Edward always gets 100% on Biology tests, Bella, however, answered 12 out of 15 questions correct. What percentage did Bella get right?”(Click for more twilight math)

Furthermore, there is no need to follow our state’s math curriculum. Math need not be segregated into little subjects called pre-algebra, algebra, algebra II, geometry, etc. Follow your interests! If you, like Patri Friedman (son of David Friedman, grandson of Milton Friedman) find yourself enjoying probability more than other math subjects simply because it gives you an advantage in board games with your friends, then pursue it! You are simply filling your toolbox with more math skills, and, eventually you will find benefit in other branches of math.

Do this and not only will your students or children have a better understanding of mathematical principles, they will finally see the relevance in math and you know, they may actually start liking it!

Jeremiah Dyke is an adjunct professor of mathematics at LFCC, author of the children's book “Do Natural Numbers Ever Wonder What’s UnNatural” and founder of Hands on Math. Contact him if you would like to brainstorm 

Reply

Jeremiah Dyke replied on Sun, Apr 3 2011 10:16 PM

rated by 0 users

Thanks for the help!

Reply

David Friedman replied on Mon, Apr 4 2011 1:24 AM

rated by 0 users

"If you, like Patri Friedman (son of David Friedman, grandson of Milton Friedman) find yourself enjoying probability more than other math subjects simply because it gives you an advantage in board games with your friends, then pursue it!"

It's possible that Patri at some point said that, but my guess is that you are getting it from someone who misinterpreted something I said about Bill, Patri's younger brother. Bill learned probability theory young, in large part because he was involved in D&D and similar activities and wanted to know how one would calculate the probability of various dice rolls.

Reply

David Friedman replied on Mon, Apr 4 2011 10:05 PM

rated by 0 users

"If you, like Patri Friedman (son of David Friedman, grandson of Milton Friedman) find yourself enjoying probability more than other math subjects simply because it gives you an advantage in board games with your friends, then pursue it! "

I think you are confusing my son Patri with his younger brother Bill, who is the one who learned probability theory young because he was doing D&D and similar things and wanted to know how to calculate the probability of dice rolls.

I thought I posted this comment a few days ago, but it doesn't seem to have appeared--apologies if it is going out twice.

Reply

Jeremiah Dyke replied on Tue, Apr 5 2011 1:58 AM

rated by 0 users

Thank you Mr. Friedman, 

I sent the quote to Patri via facebook to make sure it was characterized correctly, but haven’t heard back. It’s actually in publication via Lew Rockwell as i write. I’ll try to send Lew a correction email. My apologies