I am writing to letter to the Metro
Mar. 1st, 2005 01:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taratemimaGive me feedback:
President Summers' defenders and detractors don't seem to notice the elephant in the lecture hall: math education in this country is done poorly.
Maybe they cannot see the connection: the child interested in math and science becomes the adult going to graduate school for math. Sadly, with 'fewer the better' isolating of students having trouble with math, that eliminates most of the curious right there, without investigating ways to help them. It is also taught perfunctorily and dully, which puts off more people.
I don't see it getting much better with popular notions of sex differences in learning. Too often, people take that 'innate' difficulty in math and science to mean they shouldn't help girls with problems learning. Can you imagine if a little boy was told since girls have an advantage in reading and writing, it is useless to teach him?
I don't rule out some neurological difference; if language is innate, why not math? Until difficulties in math and science are taken seriously and given the same resources as difficulties in reading and writing, however, I am not going to hail Summers as a visionary just yet.
President Summers' defenders and detractors don't seem to notice the elephant in the lecture hall: math education in this country is done poorly.
Maybe they cannot see the connection: the child interested in math and science becomes the adult going to graduate school for math. Sadly, with 'fewer the better' isolating of students having trouble with math, that eliminates most of the curious right there, without investigating ways to help them. It is also taught perfunctorily and dully, which puts off more people.
I don't see it getting much better with popular notions of sex differences in learning. Too often, people take that 'innate' difficulty in math and science to mean they shouldn't help girls with problems learning. Can you imagine if a little boy was told since girls have an advantage in reading and writing, it is useless to teach him?
I don't rule out some neurological difference; if language is innate, why not math? Until difficulties in math and science are taken seriously and given the same resources as difficulties in reading and writing, however, I am not going to hail Summers as a visionary just yet.
