Expertise Has All But Ruined Mathematics Education
Math education is riddled with solutions. Solutions are everywhere. Solutions are popular. Solutions make life easier for teachers — as their job is already hard enough. Solutions are can be marketed. Solutions are profitable.
The problem with solutions is that it comes dangerously pre-installed with expertise.
The problem with solutions in math education is that they only address the most superficial “problems” — like falling test scores.
As you can see from the graph above, math education tends to be hostile to the larger reality of students, testing fatigue, and general dissatisfaction with schools.
And yet, Building Thinking Classrooms still had the temerity to affix the label of “Slacking” to students.
They are slacking, stalling, faking, and mimicking because they simply don’t care anymore. Having them stroll to a white board to do tasks is not addressing the larger, global problem of school exhaustion by students.
This is the kind of danger that is inherited when expertise and one-size-fits-all solutions run wild in math education.
And, if there is one place where expertise should never be trusted, it is in the space of mathematics. It’s entire history of slow failure is built on so much doubt and confusion.
Simply put, we are not allowed to be lost anymore — that’s a bad thing. Well, without be able to get lost, you might as well throw curiosity and creativity in the waste basket.
The amount of certainty that is being hustled out there is a grift of the highest order. Look underneath the hood. Is there any mathematics that inspires awe, joy, wonder, and curiosity — maybe giving hope to at least temporarily eclipse the bleakness of a school day?
The only thing I am certain about is that I don’t have any answers. I have faith in the curiosity of students, even as it is getting eviscerated in the classrooms. And, I also have faith in curiosity being the first portal to learning mathematics.
After that, I have tons of doubt as to what happens next…
