Math Education’s Problem Is Simple: Adults Who Are Addicted To Complex Solutions

I taught for 20 years. I taught high school in one of Toronto’s poorest neighbourhoods and, at the other end of the spectrum, I taught at the International School of Lausanne. I also taught the Higher Level Year 12 Mathematic course while I was there. And, I took a team of 3 students to a European Middle School Mathematics Competition to Paris is 2006.

I also spent an entire day inside a Juvenile Detention Centre in San Jose in 2023 — doing mathematics to mostly Latino males ages 14 to 18. Most had gang affiliations that were tattooed onto their arms.

So, I can confidently say, my experiences in the classroom have covered a fairly wide spectrum with regards to many socio-economic metrics and student profiles.

I can also confidently say that my time at the Faculty of Education to get a Teacher’s degree gave me zero insight/knowledge/help on how I would teach mathematics — nevermind to such a diverse group of students.

That’s because mathematics education is an echo chamber of complex ideas/solutions that have little footing or interest to children. The fact that this complexity seems to be permanently caked on the most banal, simple math(and not the good simple), just makes the problem cartoonish and tragically ironic.

For example, “Thin Slicing” is a common pedagogical move in that cult following of Building Thinking Classrooms. Ummm. Ummm. That’s equivalent to cooking a great piece of steak well done. You’ve ruined the steak and you’ve ruined the problem. Thin Slicing is advocated by those who probably have never experienced the joy of doing a problem without adulteration and synthetic intervention. Again, it’s part of the whole realm of adults who are addicted to complexity, and truth be told, the pedantry that is common in higher education.

Children like simplicity. Adults like complexity.

And, when it comes to learning — loving mathematics — that reality above is recipe for historical disaster generation after generation after generation…

Here’s the pedagogy of simplicity that worked for me in every situation I taught in.

Prioritize human relationships first.

Find great math problems/puzzles/ideas and get out of their way.

This worked when I was coaching the Math Team in Switzerland. This worked when I was teaching young males in a Juvenile Detention Centre.

Mathematics has transcended every race, culture, and socio-economic situation in history. Every one.

In fact, it was the great mathematician Pietro Cataldi — who purposely taught and wrote in Italian so there would be wider audience for his work(the academic language of that time was Latin). So much so, that he wanted his mathematics to be accessible to poor children.

Cataldi showed his benevolence by giving the superiors of various Franciscan monasteries the task of distributing free copies of his ‘Practica aritmetica’ to monasteries, seminaries, and poor children.(Caruccio)

Let’s be honest. Mathematics education was never designed with children foremost in mind — they are simply a footnote/asterisk in its construction. I mean what sane educator would plant fractions in so early — while neglecting number theory(beautiful integer relationships of numbers)?

Mathematics education will never fix itself because it is in a iterative cycle of self-serving complexity — neither prioritizing the playfulness of both mathematics and children.

Don’t trust math educators who have stopped doing mathematics or learning about mathematics.

They are simply cashing in on this complex addiction with pedagogical gobbledygook, that once removed, there is little or no simplistic beauty of mathematics to be mooned over.

Unfortunately, there is too much money to be made from selling overly processed mathematics with little nutritional value — and we are not honest enough to even recognize that…