Word: algebra
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Build Better Standards The drive toward common national standards should begin, I think, with math and reading. Algebra should be the same for a kid in Albany, N.Y., as it is for one in Albuquerque, N.M., or for that matter in Beijing or Bangalore. (We can save for later the debate over whether that should be true for more subjective subjects like history.) These standards should define precisely what students are expected to know by the time they complete each grade and should be accompanied by tests to assess their level of proficiency. The process should be quasi-voluntary: states...
...many cases, work fanaticism is either an avoidance or cultivation of inadequacies in other, less structured, domains. Although students’ original dedication to work was likely based on an innate love of algebra, it is possible that this interest was also motivated by a somewhat diminished temptation for the frolics of youth. A highly scientific straw poll of the first 20 people I recognized in Quincy revealed that only four felt they were popular at the age of 12 to 14; past social reclusion is not a universalistic trend, but it does seem to be prevalent...
...ever, formerly sexless children are suddenly curious about members of the opposite sex, and such curiosity is confusing, disorienting, and distracting, at least for the first year or so. In a classroom setting, it goes without saying that young people of this age are preoccupied with other things besides algebra or sentence diagramming. If students spend these awkward years in single-sex rather than coeducational classrooms, the majority of those distractions are instantly eliminated. They can learn and focus in a comfortable environment in which they need not worry about the way they appear to members of the opposite...
...college, still amazed that, with my History and Literature degree, I’m teaching math to students who are usually five or six grade levels behind where they should be. I’m still discovering all the places inside our copier where a sheet of algebra problems can crinkle and jam (six and counting...
...vast majority of my students spend their time graphing inequalities, struggling to remember the rules of decimal multiplication, and finding the surface area of cylinders. They work because I compose worksheets and make up whiteboard games, because I take them to the gym to play “Algebra Jam,” because I act like a madman to get them excited about my (rather arbitrary) team points system. I shower them with praise and affirmation and, occasionally, with Starbursts and Jolly Ranchers for correct answers...