More thoughts on math, philosophy and Paideia

Hi all,

Well, I never considered that being a math teacher could wind up with me as a cheerleader, but there it is.  Every day, I convince/cajole and cheer-lead kids until they admit that they know a bit of math and might be curious about the next thing we're covering.

I also never expected to love teaching math via the Paideia Seminar.  But after 11 years at the Classical Magnet School, it's become fun, and I firmly believe it's the best way to educate students in any area.  My initial reluctance had to do with the fact that all of the math instruction I'd ever received was either didactic or coaching, with very little socratic questioning even in the best classes.  Knowledge was a thing handed down from generation to generation, not reshaped and discovered anew by the newest generation of learners.

The beauty of the Paideia philosophy is that it makes everything discover-able and then explainable in students' own minds and most importantly their own words.  When one forms an opinion based upon their own preconceived notions and beliefs, their grasp of that topic grows.  One of my students said the other day that I use too many analogies - that they wanted to just learn how to do the math.  I took this as a huge compliment - especially because a few minutes later a student described the changing slope of a parabola in terms of their progression from a freshman to a senior in High School.  It stuck with me, and I already know all about that - but more importantly, I expect to see some essay questions on the AP exam that are analyzed in that way.


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