Okay, I found out that the world doesn't get excited about grammar skills even if I do. As my former vice principal and colleague said about teaching grammar again, "It ain't gonna happen." Okay , we're finished with grammar.
I also taught math at the middle school level. I liked teaching math and had students do all kinds of drill to learn skills. Now I realize that drill in math is no longer acceptable. However, there must be certain skills that should be taught.
Pat from Weaver of Grass thinks that learning timetables to twelve should be mandatory.
I often wonder about many of the skills and concepts I taught and if they've been of any value. Have they ever been used? I think I know the answer to that question. They probably haven't been used.
Just for fun I'll ask the Micro Manager if she can divide fractions. She gives me an odd look and then tries to see if she can do it. She doesn't know how to divide fractions and she had the top marks in her high school class.
So my next question to the Micro Manager will be, how do you find the area of a circle. With a lot of work she can find the area of a circle and then I change it to the volume of a sphere.
How about factoring polynomials? Do you remember those things? Probably not.
Remember what logarithms are and how to use them?
Yes, we learned quite a few things about triangles. Scalene triangle? Is that still in your memory bank.
I sometimes sit back and reflect about the things I taught. What value were they? Why did curriculum developers put these things in the curriculum?
I taught these skills as I thought they were valuable for kids to improve their skills in reasoning and logic.
We will never know as math was taught for it's concepts rather than reasoning and logic.
I used to know some of those things, and was a whiz with a slide rule. Whenever I need to buy carpet, or put down fertilizer, my basic geometry comes in handy. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteI owned a slide rule and maybe it's still in the house but I never learned to use it.
DeleteDad used to teach maths to the teenagers who didn't want to be in school...he showed them the patterns that were in maths, starting with the times tables...like the answers to the 9x table add up to 9, adding the numbers across in a times table and all sorts of fun stuff....and they began to enjoy learning, so then picked up things quickly!
ReplyDeleteThe point is to get people of all ages to enjoy learning...then apply the enjoyment and interest
There has to be fun in things from time to time. Your Dad probably saw the eyes light up and get big when a kid got something.
DeleteHe did so!
DeleteI vaguely remember some of the things you mention, but there are some mathematical skills that I do value highly. Understanding percentages has kept my savings in the best place, as well as keeping me well away from running into debt with credit card companies. And having a basic grasp of probability has prevented me from getting into problems with gambling!
ReplyDeleteI think people use more math than they think. I forgot about percent.
DeleteI was fairly good at math, one of my better subjects. If only I could remember everything I was taught. Take care, enjoy your day!
ReplyDeleteMath has to be used or we forget.
DeleteI have come to consider education as knowing where and how to find answers and what to do with them. Should I ever need to know the volume of a sphere, I could find the formula and use it properly.
ReplyDeleteEducation today must teach us to question what we read and see in the media so we know what’s true or real. This was not an issue when I was young.
You'll get me on my soap box. Judgement is critical particularly today when all kinds of untruth is available.
DeleteWhen I passed my GCE O level in Mathematics at the age of sixteen, I was mightily relieved that I wouldn't have to do Maths ever again. I detested it and never saw the point of it all. Incredibly, they didn't teach any of the everyday Maths we all need to know - totting up bills, planning for the future, measuring, weighing, taxation, travelling and petrol consumption etc..
ReplyDeleteThe topics you suggest are great but I don't think very many young people are mature enough to be interested.
DeleteYou have me stumped on several of those, Red. I have forgotten! I still know my times tables, tho, and have found those useful for all these years. My young grandsons have flash cards to get them started.
ReplyDeleteElectronic devices have taken the place of flash cards.
DeleteOh, Lord. I don't remember a lot of that stuff. I was terrible at math even when I was in school. I've read articles suggesting that we shouldn't expect all university-bound students to learn higher math (like calculus), because unless they're going into a field that requires it, there's no point. I never took math higher than Algebra II!
ReplyDeleteA writer like you would not find math interesting unless you had a story that involved math
DeleteI loved algebra and hated geometry. But I don't use algebra at all in my daily life, but I'll bet geometry is still useful. But no, I don't remember much about math these days.
ReplyDeleteWhat? You don't remember how to factor trinomials!
DeleteI nearly minored in math to get my engineering degree. I think I was six credits short of a minor. I loved algebra and trig but really disliked differential equations. I remember problems in that class that took me four or five pages, front and back and written as small as I could still easily read to solve a single problem and then often times I would have to redo it several times to actually get the right answer because I dropped a sign somewhere along the way.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Pat. I think a multiplication table up to nine is all one needs. That is enough to solve even the most complicated multiplication problem. 10, 11 and 12 are just memorization for the sake of memorization.
In college, you really got into math.
DeleteOh wow, just looking at your questions about math made me realize how much I had forgotten. We had to know how divide fractions and find the area of a circle when we we took mandatory math classes in high school. Right now I'm drawing a blank, but that's because my brain is 70 years old and hasn't divided a fraction more than a half century!
ReplyDeleteIt seems that we spent so much time learning to divide fractions and then practicing and people have forgotten this skill.
DeleteI was done with math once algebra and calculus entered the picture.
ReplyDeleteI think it was a bit much to teach calculus in high school.
DeleteI wasn't good with math only the basics and I've managed this far to be fine.
ReplyDeleteOur grandkids' teachers have asked kids to learn times tables in school. They are 12 and 15. We used to have contests in my classrooms.
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of learning math is to build dendrites. All of the learning builds bridges, and teaches your brain how to learn. This makes it easier to learn new things. The purpose of teaching is to teach kids how to learn. These are valuable skills.
You're right. It's not really about how much you remember but how many of the learning skills we picked up.
DeleteYes, the multiplication tables are important to know, but unfortunately too much of our "old" math was drill and rote learning of "rules" without the teaching of concepts. We could work problems, but could we problem solve?
ReplyDeleteThe distinction you bring up is extremely important .
DeleteI remember a lot of this stuff, though i forget logarithms. I agree with Jenn, we learn these things so we learn how to learn and develop logic
ReplyDeleteGoing through the topics in Math should help with skills in many other areas.
DeleteI truly believe if you had taught me math I wouldn't have been so bored with it.
ReplyDeleteNot so fast! I could be boring.
DeleteI have always considered that the value of learning lies is in exercising our brains at the time, and not in remembering every tidbit that we ever learned. If necessary we can easily relearn how to find the area of a circle by calculating Ï€ r² .
ReplyDeleteI don’t understand why we would need to learn 12x12 when 9x9 includes all digits.
Exercising the brain and establishing patterns for life is what we need.
DeleteI recall memorizing the times tables...I think that was 3rd or 4th grade. Logarithms ...I am lucky to spell it correctly! I use so little Math daily...I think use it or lose it:)
ReplyDeleteI would think that your needle work would require quite a bit of math.
DeleteI was a math major in college until advanced calculus wore me out. I now have no idea why I took trigonometry, geometry, calculus and beyond. Algebra I still use now and then.
ReplyDeleteI would hope that skills in logic are still with you from your study of trig and geometry.
DeleteI use all the skills that I learned in school. Ancient history and all kinds of math and science (I hated Physics!) and Latin. I don't know how people can decide what a strange word means without knowing Latin and/or Greek! I don't know what the children do today. Just look it up somewhere, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI really disliked math. It's like my brain just couldn't easily handle numbers. However, when I taught math to my first graders I had to really make it fun and have them think it was one of my MOST favorite subjects. And in teaching it, I think I became OK with it. I had to marry an engineer who could take care of any math we had to do though. And yes, he loves math. And do I remember any of my high school math. Uuuummm.... nope.
ReplyDeleteThe teaching of math really changed in the 80's and 90's. We adopted the Everyday Mathematics program designed by the University of Chicago in our school district. It took you away from computation exercises and focused on concepts. There was a lot of good in it, but it was a teaching method in progress.
In this part of my age I hate myself for disliking math in school years. I realized that mistake and wanted correct it. But the distance learning could not help at all.
ReplyDeleteI see my kids learning new types of things math quite different than we learned. Though table fr two to twenty were necessary for students
You sure had some good questions about math. I definitely don’t remember about factoring polynomials. The area I taught in was referred to as BusEd … short for Business Education. We were in what was called the Vocational Education part of the curriculum. Our classes were “elective,” which means the kids did not have to take them but were part of a group of classes they choose from to satisfy the number of total “credits” required to graduate. You probably already knew all that. Anyway, I liked teaching BusEd because there was so much I could relate to real life for the kids. Back in the day (not any more) we used to talk about how to write checks. Does anybody still write checks? 😊 Thanks for a post that will have me thinking about the good ol’ days. Now, thank you very much, Red, for your kind comment on my 12th Anniversary Blog Post today. Your comment made my day! John
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