Some good news, for a change, about math in schools

Start with the best couple lines of the story:

“You can’t teach what you don’t know, and your students won’t love the subject unless you love the subject,” Kenneth I. Gross, a University of Vermont mathematics and education professor, recently told a group of college mathematicians at a conference hosted by the U.S. Education Department and the National Science Foundation. “All of mathematics depends on what kids do in the elementary grades. If you don’t do it right, you’re doing remedial work all the way up to college. Arithmetic, algebra and geometry are intertwined.”

Which is why they’re starting to teach algebra in lower grades now, in some places.

This is an interesting story. It does a good job explaining what’s happening in schools these days.

Gross and others say many elementary and middle school teachers — generalists relied on to teach reading, science and social studies and even to make sure a child’s coat is zipped — are drawn to teaching by a love of children and literacy. Most had little exposure to high-level math in college and are more at home with words than numbers.

“Many of them fear math,” said Vickie Inge, math outreach director with the University of Virginia’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies. “Many of them had trouble with math themselves.”

Educators, mathematicians and business leaders are working to bridge the knowledge gap.

I didn’t know all this effort was being directed at our decades-long problem of sinking math and science grades – and skills. It’s good news. Especially since they’re going at the core of thinking skills.

Virginia Commonwealth University math professor William E. Haver, who is involved in the partnership, said elementary teachers need to know far more than the standard curriculum. With a depth of knowledge, teachers can help children understand relationships between numbers and solve problems in different ways. Without it, teachers often rely on memorization and aren’t well-equipped to help struggling students.

“Elementary math isn’t elementary,” Haver said. “There are a lot of deep ideas there. Usually, if a child doesn’t get the right answer, there’s a fair amount of good thinking along the way, but it got astray at some point. If you can pinpoint that problem, you’re better off.”

Yes! I love this.

Schools are starting to teach critical thinking skills again. How things are related, following ideas through to their logical conclusions, problem solving. They call this “a trend”, a “movement” with “urgency”. If so, it’s the best school trend to come along in decades. They’re on the right track.