You never did math in high school

Jeremy Kun:

As a teacher I encounter all of the typical kinds of students. There's one kind of student I routinely encounter, usually in a freshman calculus course, that really boils my blood: the failing student who "has always been good at math."

Oh it's so annoying! And it's even worse to hear because the stuff we teach in calculus isn't really math either. The irony is so thick in the air when a student says it I'm surprised I don't cough. Invariably, they never actually understood the "math" they were always so good at.

Of course, the problem is deeper than a handful of students who accidentally say ironically stupid things. The problem is that American high school students are taught something named "math" for four years which is not even close to math.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 13, 2014 1:42 AM
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