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TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-09-15
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7l75y1jWW4
so up until about third grade math class is great students usually have this carefree intuition with math and their confidence happy even they like math who does that but then at some point everything changes ever wonder why PI mean I noticed that you're still struggling at your long division fluency but I've made the process so simple even you could do it just remember the steps divide
multiply under subtract remainder but if you're having a hard time remembering that just remember the letters of the acronym Jeez M. U. S. author but if you're having a hard time remembering that just remember are clever mnemonic donuts may I was sad he wrote it is D. M. you as our divide multiply under subtract remainder see this is simple just follow the steps I'm gonna send
you home with lots of extra work seats so you can gain proficiency yeah pretty sure that's when math class started to suck did you ever wonder why we had to learn long division I mean when I was a kid adults tried to get away with telling me it would be very important to know when I became a little you know like I had to balance a
checkbook %HESITATION work a cash register something now I realize that all my deep rooted trust issues come from the fact that I was lied to no we use the long division algorithm as an adult he perhaps thirty forty years ago accurate pen and paper calculations might have been handy but let's just be honest who's really gonna bust out long division on paper anymore even my old
fashioned push button phone can do division imagine what a ten year olds fancy smart phone can do and they've all got so last September after years of constantly searching for ways to make math relevant to teenagers by a stroke of Providence I found myself teaching fourth grade math for part of the day it was a crazy change because fourth graders haven't been disillusioned by life gets
we have this wonderfully curious nature and they love to explore new ideas and they don't have to be bribed or threatened to participate in class well inevitably we made it to the long division units and of course I started teaching at the same way I learned as a child and saying this is simple just follow the steps one day I watched my students as they worked
in that creepy way that teachers do hands there was this sad heavies silence in the room anyone even necessarily doing the long division wrong pages heated life about moments I felt this twinge of guilt deep in my bowels but I thought to myself how else would he ever be proficient at division they must be able to keep up with the demands of our modern technology driven
job market and proficiency in mathematics is the only way that will happen so I collected the assignments and I found this little note written in the margin of Carly's paper which really wasn't that surprising since Carly was constantly writing the notes like I love math or you are so pretty and funny and I love you and who could blame her but this time it said Mrs
Warren sorry that I'm bad at math and that twinge of guilt started to feel more like a very painful cramp I wanted the writer note of my own that said car leave this is not math at least it shouldn't be am I the only one that ever wondered at the ridiculousness of this thing we call math how many times must a child's natural curiosity and confidence
be sacrificed on the altar of proficiency before we realize that something needs to change it was there in that fourth grade classroom where I came face to face with the reality of math education in our country it's kind of pointless don't get me wrong now it's not pointless mathematics as Galileo said is the language with which god has written the universe map is everywhere and of
course is extremely useful for countless applications I'm talking about what is taught in the classroom and why it is being talked I mean are we being honest when we tell our kids the years of laboring over algorithms and formulas will all be useful for a job someday really when was the last time you found the volume of an ellipsoid or the imaginary roots of a quadratic
equation at your job I'll never forget the first Smarty pants high school student who challenged me with the question you know the questions that every high school math student ever asks what is the point of all this when will I ever use it well Alex I got news for you you probably won't in fact studies show that very few Americans will ever need to use anything
more than basic arithmetic or fractions in the workplace and whether it's basic arithmetic or basic derivative calculus it's all available in the blink of an eye on your smart phone or computer so there really wasn't any need to spend thousands of hours struggling in the classroom because it's alright there in the palm of your hands so it would seem that the radical development of technology has
made math education irrelevant and unnecessary if getting the answer rights if being proficient is really the goal of our education than could we save ourselves a lot a hassle if we just left map to the most proficient ones of all computers I mean who better to follow rules and algorithms is there no place in mathematics for the human elements for the Carly's and the Alex's any
everyday people like me that struggled to find any connection between the classroom and real life quite the contrary I believe the need for math education has never been greater never been more certain necessary then in this modern it technology driven culture where presidential debates are no longer built on solid logical arguments but rather twenty second sound bites meant a placating ignorant voting populace well I hate
full political climate is driven by impulse and emotion instead of wisdom and discourse where our children are driven to and fro by the winds of confusion and a battle for their own identities oh yes we need mathematics another math that you and I were tarts we need something that reaches outside the boundaries of the classroom and touch is real life we need a renaissance so there
is due to his name with Isaac Newton me was kind of famous I guess I think you like invented gravity or something well he wrote a lots about where he got his inspiration he said if I have seen further it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants in this man's discoveries anchored the scientific revolution and yet he of all people recognized that his great accomplishments
were made possible only because he stood upon the shoulders of the sanctions Aristotle you could Archimedes Plato and other classical scholars men who studied math for a much different purpose than we do today you see ancient scholars were less interested in what math could help you do and they were more concerned with how math could affect who you are as a person they presented math as
an exploration of the mines a personal quest for truth it was this desire to uncover truths that motivated Newton and other renaissance scientists to make their world changing discoveries but what I find most intriguing is that classical mathematics wasn't aimed primarily at professional mathematicians or people who would use it in the workplace one of the most influential works of ancient philosophy is Plato's Republic in it
Plato argued that mathematical training was the number one priority for anyone in a position of authority in matters of the states and not because of its utility in daily living but rather in the spirit of a philosopher not should be studied because its ultimate aim is to lead the mind to truth his seat what Plato and other philosophers new hands what we seem to have forgotten
is that math is hands down the greatest tool for training the mines to reason well think well are you well to seek out truth and staunchly defended its these men knew that in order for democracy to succeed citizens would need a kind of wisdom that only mathematical it's raining could develop doesn't that mean something coming from the civilization that introduce democracy to the rest of the
world the mathematical philosophy of the ancient Greeks reached far beyond their borders and their time influencing not just mathematicians and scientists for millennia to come but also political leaders like surprise Abraham Lincoln Lincoln wrote that when he wished to demonstrate the truth of a proposition when he really wanted to prove something beyond a shadow of a doubt he could only do so thanks to his persistent
study of classical Greek mathematics and not ancient ideal of seeking out and defending truth was showcased for all the world to see when Lincoln boldly argued the proposition that all men are created equal how skillfully did he argued that truth and how staunchly did he defendants we cannot underestimate the power of math education to change the course of history and thanks to the democratic ideals handed
down to us from ancient Greek civilization we all as citizens have positions of authority in matters of the states do we not need it citizens in rulers who like Abraham Lincoln seek out truth and defendants what could be more relevant connection between the classroom and real life than this but the wisdom ancient scholars had in mind wasn't cultivated by this is simple just follow the steps
and unlike today learning wasn't seen as just a transfer of information from the teacher to the students no in the ancient tradition learning was seen as an exchange it was full of questions not from the students but from the teacher by asking purposeful and well timed questions the teacher would guide the student to discover the answers for himself it's no wonder that so much of ancient
Greek philosophy was written in the form of a dialogue because to them education was a two way streets more like a discussion than a lecture it was this process this dialogue that developed the critical thinking skills required to reason well think well are you well if you got truth and defend it no acronyms or clever mnemonics required just dialogue try to remember when math class ever
resembled anything close to a dialogue all I remember is a one way street where the teacher gave me the steps to get the answer rights and I wrote them down in my notes no dialogue no discovery just write this down so you can be proficient as an educator I have spent so much time focused on how to teach math when all along I really should've been
focused on why we teach math the ancient Greeks knew the why and from that's the howl flowed naturally as the results of course if personal discovery of truth is our goal if cultivating discerning and why is that citizens is our goal then we must train every student to think for himself but this can never be accomplished with the D. M. you as our kind of education
that we experience growing up the day after I read Carly's note I marched in about fourth grade classroom and I swore to them that as long as I was their teacher they would never do the long division algorithm ever again Carly raise their hand and said but Mrs Warren how will we do the division is there any other way and honestly I had no idea I
was totally was making it up as a wince but I just started asking them questions what is division how does that relate to the other operations what are you even trying to do and that was what a bunch of fourth graders conjectured and debated and discussed ideas and hope they came up with the division algorithm of their own which probably isn't really that inspiring because who
cares a calculator will do division for you but it's not the having of knowledge that makes math relevance it's the discovery we will restore meaning to mathematics when we embrace the same time honored tradition that raised up some of the greatest minds in history but we must make education a two way street where we ask our children questions to lead them to solve problems themselves instead
of just giving the steps to get the right answer I experienced a beautiful renaissance in my math classes when I started having real purposeful dialogue with my students dialogue that I hope will equip them to be citizens who discover and defend truth in our worlds I am confident that when we teach math for the right reasons we will never again have to ask what is the
