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Re: Math is an Art
Posted:
Feb 25, 2012 6:05 PM
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I wrote "there are differences of opinion in music pedagogy but nothing like these math wars" and let me explain very simply...
What you are referring to mostly Paul is taste. The varying schools of thought in music still recognize technical ability and its development. What they may differ on is how it is approached. Using Hanon, etudes or demanding passages is really a matter of taste and opinion, but all with the same purpose of attaining the same thing, technical ability. And they do not have any other choice in this matter because the music we love, that we wish to play, is right there on paper in front of our face and it requires this technical ability to play. In short, even though they may differ on how best to attain it and train it, they recognize technical ability. They do not remove it.
In math education the story is quite different. When they remove the mentality of arithmetic they do so in its entirety. This is not an opinion on how to best attain skill with number and operation. When they remove factoring and refactoring from algebra they do not replace it with some other skillful algebraic expression. They are not trying to teach these skills differently, they are removing them entirely, and without a substitute, unless you consider a calculator a substitute for skill. It does not take long, especially once you have recognized this phenomena for what it is, to realize that these educators that remove these skills don't actually possess or understand them.
I never said all educators are like this and lack the obvious skills of a mathematician, but there are plenty that do. You would expect a few (because of chance) but the actual number is much larger than that, and I am afraid to say, from my observations of teachers on blogs, it is probably around 50% in precollege teachers. I don't have data on college teachers, but when you look at some of the calculus programs at schools like Michigan, where a "C" starts as low as 32%, it must be a hoot to be in the math department. So one has to question the standards by which a teacher is allowed to teach. But at the same time, if we want to have enough algebra teachers to teach every kid in the country advanced algebra, even though 75% of them will fail, we can't be choosy.
Bob Hansen
On Feb 25, 2012, at 11:33 AM, Paul Tanner wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 11:09 AM, Joe Niederberger
> <niederberger@comcast.net> wrote:
>> So what is the name of this philosophy Paul? How widespread is it. What is its history? Who are its main proponents?
>>
>>
>
> It's not called anything, and it's somewhat widespread and has been
> around as long as there have been musicians.
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