TOW #19- The Wrong Way to Teach Math

Andrew Hacker is an American political scientist and public intellectual. He has written various books on better education, improving mathematical intellect, and philosophy. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, in which he writes several articles question whether mathematics is necessary. He says “Making mathematics mandatory prevents us from discovering and developing young talent.” In his recent article, ‘The Wrong Way to Teach Math’, he criticizes the teaching of math in school through continuous drill. He makes several strong arguments and I am inclined to agree. Mathematics in school is not being taught well, and we need a way to transition to a method that will stick with students long-term.

One of Hacker’s key points is that many adults today are unable to do simple math when they must calculate things like the coverage of a 26x30 inch carpet, or the price of five apples with a cost of $2.35 without having to get help. Though it seems a bit farfetched, I have been on plenty of trips to the store with adults, and the frequency in which I find that I need to assist them in simple calculations or formulas is astounding. Though it can be argued that, currently, our generation is much more educated than the last, I expect to give it a few years before I forget the formula to find the circumference of a circle. We do not have enough day-to-day experience with mathematics in order to properly memorize the methods. Therefore, what should be focused on is making it stick the first, second, or third time you learn it opposed to drilling it into students and making them apply it to specific numeric occasions.

Hacker offers a reference to something that they did in his class: making it applicable to real life situations. He makes it something that we may see on a day to day basis. Not “Jimmy buys 30 watermelons…” but instead focusing on visualizing data that they may come across. He asks them to connect two charts and put together an idea on how they could relate, while asking why questions. This develops an interest in the topic that the students can more likely apply to their day-to-day world. Personally, I find that these are the type of problems that I can better associate on a day to day basis. Things that I can casually apply and think of without even knowing it, and continue applying later on.

Overall, Hacker is right. The current mathematical system just isn’t working based off of the evidence that we’ve seen in the current generation of adults. The best thing to do is find a proper alteration. Instead of looking at how much math is being applied, we should instead look at how it is being applied.