Math(s)

Hi all, On this chilly September morning, I am reminded about the qualities of persistence and resilience, and the tendency of those who would rather not work to blame those who they want to do their work for them.  This is starting to sound very republican, but I assure you it's not.  I've been teaching in a low income, very diverse magnet school for my whole teaching career (13 years).  Every student who has ever come into my classroom has had some degree of this.  Mostly, I hear things like, "Mister, why can't you just show the steps?" or, "why don't you just teach us?!?"  This is the basic issue.  People want other people to do their work for them.  This is a universal, human characteristic.  However, we cowtow to it whenever we allow students to push us into giving them the answer.  It's easier.  But the problem is, when we do that and let them push us into didactic, step by step instruction, we rob them of the chance to discover ...

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Hi all, We have a problem, in our society, about delay of gratification.  We want the answer now, the money now (just think of that commercial - it's MY MONEY AND I Want it NOW!), the degree now, the new job now, the new relationship . . . the list is endless.  The unfortunate side effect of this culture is that it creates people who want to just be rich and skip all the steps in between.  So we sue one another, we screw one another, we do anything we can to get ahead.  One of my friends is this way.  Let's call him Peter.  Peter has a construction business, a recording business, and he makes sure everyone sees him spending lots of cash on his workers.  People work for him, and he'll tell anyone who will listen how much money he has.  He wouldn't care too much about a degree because he's learned he doesn't need one.  Peter is just an example of a more systemic problem.  Our students, especially in math and science, have stopped bei...