The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth." ~Dan Rather

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

The Wonder Years


I saw this episode of the Wonder Years the other day and had to laugh. It's the first day of 8th grade and everything is going well...until math class. When I watched this, I laughed at how ridiculous the teaching of math appeared. The episode was set about 50 years ago and I'd like to think we'd come a ways in math education since then. And certainly we have, in many ways. But I have to wonder why it is that math has a reputation for being the class that nobody understands and many students hate. What can we do to change this?