1. When, oh, when.........

.........will those outside the classroom stop telling those inside what and how to teach!!

Take a look at these super letters responding to the NYT article I posted the other day:

December 9, 2013

Inspiring Students in Math and Science

To the Editor:

Re “Who Says Math Has to Be Boring?” (editorial, “Numbers Crunch” series, Dec. 8):

As a New York City public high school math teacher for 15 years, I’d like to answer your question. Who says math has to be boring?

■ My students, most of whom just don’t seem interested in learning anything, much less calculus.

■ Some of my fellow math teachers, who assign pages of boring math equations to solve and give weekly exams.

■ Administrators in my school, who are themselves convinced that they’re “no good at math.”

■ Textbook writers, with their endless, seemingly useless rote problems to solve.

■ Random people I meet, who usually tell me how much they hate math when I tell them what I do.

Mathematics is the language of the cosmos, and the basic human thirst for knowledge led to the discovery of its beauty and connectedness to everything around us. Therefore, it is certainly not the math that is boring, but the way we present it to students.

First, we should abandon textbooks and tests in the classroom and replace them with project-based curriculums. Second, let’s create a national catalog of interesting, engaging projects for teachers to choose from. And finally, educational leaders must help to create a culture of learning in our schools so that we can end the vicious cycle of assuming that “math has to be boring.”

SETH BLUM
New York, Dec. 8, 2013

To the Editor:

Math wasn’t widely taught in classrooms until the first half of the 1800s. Yet, math was used to build roads, buildings, ships and structures at least since the pyramids in 2700 B.C.

Do the math. A broad calculation says that only about 4 percent of humankind’s math education has been in a classroom. The rest has been “on the job.”

People learn math when they realize they can use it. It’s a simple lesson to remember. The challenge is to apply that lesson in today’s context and using today’s technologies.

Math education swings on a pendulum between the practical and the theoretical. Now we’re just at a point where it needs to swing back toward the practical.

JOE YOUCHA
Alexandria, Va., Dec. 9, 2013

The writer directs the Building to Teach boatbuilding program for the Alexandria Seaport Foundation.

To the Editor:

While there is much to agree with, your editorial is based on the premise that education can be improved if it is fun. Ultimately, such a view encounters what philosophers call the paradox of hedonism: the more one tries to have fun, the less likely one will have it.

To use an analogy, when I coached my son’s soccer team, I was flabbergasted by parents’ constant refrain that the kids were supposed to have fun rather than painstakingly develop skills. As the kids will tell you, constantly losing is not much fun.

It is time for a fundamental attitude change toward STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education. We do not do our children any favors by telling them that math is fun. Skills must be mastered and a certain amount of drudgery must be endured. However, mastery, like winning, can be a lot of fun.

KARSTEN R. STUEBER
Sturbridge, Mass., Dec. 8, 2013

The writer is a professor of philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross.

To the Editor:

In your wonderful editorial you don’t mention the deadening effect of standardized testing on math and science programs.

Since the tests are built on a traditional sequence, they discourage schools from instituting more interesting, engaging, integrated and application-oriented mathematics and science programs. States and the federal government need new policies that move schools away from using these tests and instead encourage innovative, hands-on programs designed to motivate and interest students in learning the STEM subjects.

ELLIOTT SEIF
Philadelphia, Dec. 8, 2013

The writer is an educational consultant and advocate and former professor of education at Temple University.

To the Editor:

Have our educational policy makers never met a mind-numbingly obtuse math teacher? In my 20 years of teaching high school mathematics, I have met and worked with many STEM majors. Some have been exceptional, and some have been stultifying dullards.

You point out that more than half of students are learning about physical sciences from teachers who did not major in those subjects. But requiring STEM teachers to have majored in their teaching discipline will guarantee only exposure to content, not necessarily mastery, fluency, creative ability or the ability to teach and inspire excellence.

Rather than adding 100,000 STEM teachers by 2021, why not recruit and add the best and brightest college graduates to the classroom, as Finland and Singapore do? The United States needs more smart teachers who can do the STEM subjects, not just more STEM teachers.

AMY A. YAM
Pittsburgh, Dec. 8, 2013