Comments on: Boys’ and Girls’ Different Math Strategies

By: The Math Mojo Chronicles » The Value of Quick Addition Skills

The Math Mojo Chronicles » The Value of Quick Addition Skills — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:54:26 +0000

[...] About a month ago, Penny commented on this post. [...]

By: Susan G.

Susan G. — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:20:59 +0000

Some kids do have trouble getting into those number facts, but once they have them down, you can explore a great deal more. It’s all about solving life-problems. Now just going shopping, but contemplating sunflower heads, maps and Mayan hieroglyphs. Not everyone can see patterns, but those who can should be allowed to explore. Personally, I am a plodder in Math and have to see it on paper, but I love learning. Curiosity is essential.

By: penny

penny — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:52:16 +0000

My child once came home from school very upset, because she said that the teachers were teaching all these applications of math to daily life etc. She said she didn’t want to learn about grocery shopping or sales tax etc. She wanted to learn MATH in math class. I pulled her out of school, into homeschooling and started her on symbolic logic–she was eight.

She was not a whiz at adding numbers in her head–but by the age of eleven she was doing tensor calculus and asking deep questions about differential geometry.

She is now a molecular biologist. She is still no whiz at adding numbers in her head!

By: penny

penny — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:42:18 +0000

Frankly, I don’t care if an elementary school child can add long columns of numbers in their head–it is an almost worthless skill. I do care if they can think about mathematical concepts.
Better to teach them to come up with simple proofs (not memorized proofs) of basic facts in math.
Better that they should understand what a prime number is, and why we care about prime numbers.
Better that they should learn to enjoy slow, deep thought about puzzles and concepts.
That is where the gold standard in math education is.

Professor Homunculus sez:

Penny, I agree that those things are “better,” I have some thoughts about the value of learning to add long columns of numbers in your head. I don’t think it should be de rigueur for all students, of course. But it had an amazing value for me, and when I teach it to “mathaphobic” children, it creates children who are suddenly less afraid of, and more interested in the other things you mentioned.

There are other values to it, as well. I will be posting about it soon, as I think there may be something in it for math educators and real mathematicians like yourself to consider.

Remember, this is coming from someone who has experienced a little of one side (understanding and appreciation of math) and a lot of the other side (knowing what it is like to be almost violently mathaphobic until deep into my thirties.) I may have a bit of insight about how to “cross the void.” That is the reason I created MathMojo. (As well as to learn more about math from the people like yourself who visit the sight and leave thought-provoking comments!)

Hotcha!

By: penny

penny — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:38:59 +0000

If you want to encourage math skills, buy your kid a Rubik’s cube ( with NO access to cheat sites), and a chess set with a CLOCK–for slow play.
Penny, ( Research mathematician and former member of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study and the Max Planck Institute).
Kids need long blocks of unstructured, unpressured, THINK time–where slow, careful problem solving is a FUN activity.
We spend too much time structuring kid’s lives–and this is actually not a good thing.

Professor Humunculus sez:

Perfectly said. ’nuff said.

By: penny

penny — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:35:36 +0000

Perhaps, this is due to the video games and not to the gender of the child directly.
In the days before video games, I recall that both boys and girls could concentrate and study fine, often for hours at a clip.
The original devil here is Sesame Street, which initiated the teaching by sound byte method–with the idea that learning was a lily that needed gilding with song and dance.
Life is NOT a video game–no, siree.

Professor Homunculus sez:

I’m with you on this one. (We are sooooo politically incorrect. I love it.) I think boys may have been a little more “hyper” than girls back in my day (pre-jurassic) but nothing like to the extent of today. And it seems like girls may be getting more hyper. Those are just anecdotal views, so I won’t be making any bets on it, but if I had to bet, I think that’d be the way to go.

I also remember that when I was a kid, I always wondered why I changed the TV channels so much, even if I was watching something I liked, whereas I could chose a book and read it for six hours straight, days on end until it was finished.

That’s not something I wonder about anymore. I am absolutely sure it’s got something to do with commercials, the nature of the Siren-song of TV “choice,” culminating with the “culture of the clip.”