Problem Solving and Math

Was looking at the continual decline of the math scores of US youth.  My generation was the first to experience a large decline.  I remember being a kid and being taught, “new math”.  Then, I got an “individually paced math program” in middle school.  The idea behind that was I would learn at my own pace, and my teacher would help me individually through the program.  Since some kids could go faster, they could fly a little higher and not be held up by the class.  Other kids that weren’t as prepared could get instruction, and in the end catch up to the rest of the class.

That failed for me.

In high school, I didn’t have a very good freshman algebra teacher.  But, it turns out I really loved doing algebra for some reason.  Once it clicked, it was fun to problem solve.  Then my sophomore year I asked a teacher if I would ever use the stuff I was learning in algebra and geometry.  He told me that I would probably never use it.

Because of the kind of kid I was, I tuned it all out.  I was practical.  If I wasn’t going to use it, why spend time mastering it?

Turns out, the reason to learn math isn’t so you know 2+2=4 or so that you can do basic math skills to balance a check book.  The reason to learn, appreciate, and love math is to learn the basics of problem solving.

How do you set up a problem?  How do you organize it?

The point of math is the thrill of the chase.  Define the variable, isolate it, solve for it.

Thinking more broadly, one of America’s problems today is generations of people don’t know how to individually problem solve.  They never were taught math correctly, and so they cannot organize their thoughts or put together a process to solve for things.

Instead, they look to the government to solve for them.  Government just cannot be a problem solver.  It’s not the role of government and based on the evidence, it just isn’t something it is good at.

I am thinking we need to go back to the way we taught math prior to the baby boom generation, with technological enhancements that can really give kids the chance at opportunity.

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