tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2790809561264810693.post4250330461947208278..comments2023-11-07T06:56:59.563-05:00Comments on Ann Arbor Schools Musings: What is Math Good For?Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10531344380743742801noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2790809561264810693.post-37028664373476126552009-09-10T21:00:10.088-04:002009-09-10T21:00:10.088-04:00I completely agree with you about learning to thin...I completely agree with you about learning to think in different ways. What was really shocking to me was that MATH teachers cannot articulate why math is important. And really, most kids tend to do well at things that they think are important (or at least they try to do well). So convincing kids that something is important is key. <br />One year my child had a teacher whom I thought gave way too much homework. But my daughter would defend the homework, saying, "It's important because I'm learning x." In other words, the teacher had the gift of convincing kids that what they were doing was important.Ruthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10531344380743742801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2790809561264810693.post-55803508197228258582009-09-07T22:53:43.536-04:002009-09-07T22:53:43.536-04:00Even if one wants to be mercenary about it, I thin...Even if one wants to be mercenary about it, I think an argument can be made for both geometry and sonnets. What matters is less the specific knowledge than having learned to think in a variety of ways. That said, math education would probably benefit from including more applied lessons. A quick browse through this book left me thinking that geometry should probably play less of a role in HS math while there should be more probability, statistics, and chaos theory (okay, some of that may technically be classified as geometry). <br /><br />http://books.google.com/books?id=IK7VKbo7znUCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com