Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Basket weaving for the math teachers
Carson said long division “was completely excised from the programs for quite a while until the backlash got so large that they at least had to make nods toward teaching it.
“In 5th grade they're still drawing pictures to solve problems in multiplication and division.”
Her son, who attends the public schools in New York City, was drawing clumps of sticks to solve multiplication problems in the 6th grade, she said.
In the 7th grade, he and his classmates were asked to find the area of a circle. Four weeks were devoted to the task. Traditionally, children were given the formula, but apparently these junior Archimedes were supposed to rediscover the uses of pi.
Via Gene Expression, View: The ideology of math education
This article was linked to by Gene Expression in a long follow-up about anti-racist math (I kid you not), who also posted an entry with the syllabus from a gradulate level multi-cultural math class, involving … well …
The julekurv is a Norwegian Christmas basket. The Norwegians fill these baskets with treats and put the filled baskets on their Christmas trees for family and friends. You may want to make a basket for any holiday, such Valentine's Day, or for no special day at all. In any case, you will beautiful, hand-made object.
Multi-Cultural Math— Teaching the Teachers
Basket weaving.
In a gradulate level course!
As I stated last month, can't we just torch the educational system now?
Please?
