Failure in Mathematics

In general, my experiences in high school (and I mean in high school, taking classes, partaking in clubs and such) were educational and enlightening. Quite simply, the reason for this was I had outstanding teachers, teachers that transformed a timid, self-conscious adolescent into a timid, self-conscious adolescent interested in taking a path (that my teachers helped pave) towards meaning. My teachers recognized my natural abilities and weaknesses and helped bring the innate good in me to fruition while helping me (explicitly and covertly) work past my bad characteristics.

My appreciation of my high school experiences is augmented by two elements: the lack of extraordinary professors I encountered in college and statements such as this from the press release of an MSU study on mathematics instruction:

“We must break the cycle in which we find ourselves… A weak K-12 mathematics curriculum in the U.S., taught by teachers with an inadequate mathematics background, produces high school graduates who are at a disadvantage. When some of these students become future teachers and are not given a strong background in mathematics during teacher preparation, the cycle continues.”

It seems obvious that the key to educating children is employing good teachers, but conversations on the effectiveness of teachers are obscured by talks about funding in education and other elements that may or may not correlate with student performance. Yet, the focus seems to be changing. The effectiveness of Teach for America and administrators such as Michelle Rhee and the findings of recent studies have helped bring attention to hiring good, effective teachers. Teacher performance is also an integral element of Obama and Arne Duncan’s proposed education reform.

This change in focus is necessary. This can be discerned from many recent studies, and I can attest to the need based on my own experience observing in high schools. Our teachers lack sufficient knowledge to teach their designated subjects. (Note: Indiana has recently passed legislation changing the educational requirements of prospective teachers. It will be required that they major rather than simply minor in the subjects they teach). This is true in all subjects but let us focus on math since that is the focus of the study quoted above. Most students have learned formulas and equations, but have they really encountered the essence of mathematics? I’m enthralled by Steven Strogatz’s weekly contribution to the New York Times exploring the world of mathematics, and I really mean that word: world. I first encountered the world of math, not in a high school or college math class, but rather through my studies in philosophy, Plato in particular. As anyone interested in philosophy will say, mathematics has been invaluable aspect of philosophy since, well, philosophy became a rigorous school under Plato. I’ll leave the exploration to Strogatz, but my personal exploration of math through philosophy has been more fascinating than anything I ever encountered in a math class.

This relates to the initial discussion because our high school math teachers lack the knowledge to teach our nation’s children the way Strogatz can teach readers of the New York Times. Expecting a Strogatz in every classroom is unreasonable, but there should be more than there are now. Right now (as the above quote suggests) we have math teachers who learned the math of equations and formulas teaching the math of equations and formulas to their students, some of whom will teach that math of equations and formulas to their future students. We need a change because the education system is obviously not functioning to the degree it should (according the study above, Polish and Russian students beat out American students). Perhaps Indiana is on the right track, and the Obama education initiatives will cause a sea change in education. It will be interesting to see the data in the next decade after these teacher-focused initiatives have taken hold.