Within roughly 24 hours in this past week, I ran into two cartoons that dealt with topics we have kicked around before, one of them as recently as the last column. They both dealt with common misconceptions and/or favorite complaints about mathematics. And they were both just varied enough that I thought taking another look at the topics might be beneficial rather than redundant.
Plus everyone likes cartoons, right? Especially if they reinforce your view of math? Here are the cartoons and such.
1] The Baby Blues comic strip one week ago today (9/10/20) showed the father passing the daughter sitting on the couch. He asks what she is doing and she replies “Just some online learning.” When the dad asks what kind, she says “Math.” He looks over at her laptop and says “Zoe, that’s a shoe sale.” She answers with a grin, “Sizes, prices, discounts – it’s all numbers!”
2] A friend posted this cartoon on Facebook. The scene: A young couple having a deep discussion. “Share a book that made you cry,” she says. He replies “Algebra I.”
Another friend added this comment: “When I was in seventh grade, all we did in math was add, subtract, multiply and divide . . . and it would put me to sleep. I never got over it.” Two or three other friends piled on with similar comments, with the word ‘algebra’ mentioned rather as a curse word.
So, we’re looking at the numbers-and-math confusion and the never-good-at-math themes again. Different topics, but definitely related. Great fun. Comments below refer to corresponding numbers from above.
1] Numbers and mathematics are indeed (usually) inextricably linked. But, like words and writing, or scales and music, they are not the same thing. (When someone says ‘do the math’, they usually mean ‘do the arithmetic’ and that subtlety can cause real perception problems.) Just dealing with numbers, or even doing arithmetic, is not really the same thing as doing math (solving problems) in general.
This is not to say that numbers themselves can’t be fun, of course!! As we’ve mentioned in the past, a person can love both numbers and math, or they can love one and not the other. And, of course – I feel you saying it – they can love neither, which really isn’t as universal as might be thought.
2] As discussed just last time, some of this dislike of math is our (we teachers’) fault. Doing arithmetic with long columns of numbers is no more doing mathematics than playing lots of scales is making music. And still doing this in 7th grade – even way back when – is just this side of a crime. And it tends to drive students away.
Naturally, practice in ‘skills’ is needed in both math and music, especially music. Pure arithmetic practice (like times tables!) is not needed as much these days, thanks to the advent of technology. (This is not evil – it actually allows us more time to get to the problem solving!).
Unfortunately, in elementary school math education, we haven’t made that number/math distinction – or shared that final beauty – nearly explicitly enough or nearly often enough for our students. And, in the past, we’ve been too often boring in our here’s-what- to-do presentations. Because of that, we have lost prospective enthusiasts, and picked up budding haters.
Luckily, things are better these days than they used to be. Even today though, part of the problem with developing young thinkers, problem solvers, and yes – math lovers – is helping students understand what we’re doing and why, and then finding a way to transition from numbers/skills to math/thinking in a way that is not boring and that can maintain their interest.
I once asked a kid at church what he was doing in math. He replied, “goes into.” I said, “So, you have started division.” His response, “No, we are doing goes into!”
Love it!! Toward the end of my career, especially when we would discuss terms associated with division with future elementary teachers I added the word ‘gozintu’ to things like multiple, divisor, divides, etc. They would look questioningly until I pronounced it. 🙂