Math - Something does not add up

This past week the international report on how 43 countries are preforming on math was released and of course the usual media activity soon followed. Canada, while doing much better then the other "western" nations, came in at 13. Not bad if you ignore that this is a six spot drop on the list over the past two reports. Of course this was pointed out by several news reports which also tried to point out the problem with Canada's school system. Most pointed at two main  possible causes. Poor teachers who are not prepared to teach math, and of course the curriculum needs to be adjusted back to a more traditional one. This for me just does not add up.

I visited a local high school as a representative of our College and was asked a question by some of their faculty that kind of made me understand the first point in these news casts. They said "What do we need to teach our technology students to better position them for your trades and technology related programs, and don't say math?" These teachers don't want to teach math because it is boring. They want to teach all the things that are part of the learning outcomes in our technology programs instead of preparing them for post secondary by giving them a proper foundation.

It is so easy to point out that this is a problem in our elementary and secondary school systems. They are the ones with the task of teaching these very fundamental subjects. One suggestion of the media is very true. We need to go back to traditional curriculum. This will help but only take us part way. We need also to remove all of the calculators from math class. Children need to be able to figure things out in their head. This will put us back on a path of strong mathematical skills in our youth giving them an opportunity to meet the skills shortage of tomorrow.

After this there is nothing else the school system can do. No magical fix that some of the other countries are doing that we do not know about. They need to just hand back the traditional curriculum's to teachers and take away all the cool subjects they want to teach.Also make a hard fast rule that indicates when and how calculators can be used in math class. Yet, even with some of our Canadian schools teaching a more traditional curriculum, they are not preforming at the level of other nations. This is where things do not add up and there has to be something else. I believe there is a very big piece missing, but it can not be supplied in a school.

The way our children play is ever changing and I think in here lies a key. I was shopping last week for my grandchildren for Christmas and picked up a Monopoly game. This will be great, I thought, they are at the age when they will need to be doing the math required in this game. The picture on the box was different and on closer examination I found that this game now has a computer to figure everything out for them. They don't do any math at play so it is little wonder that they can not figure things out, they have never have to. Games is a big part of the reason that these children do not know how to do  math. I know that I enjoyed the times I would play crib with my grandfather and the entire time I was learning math and strategy. Kids are competitive and by giving them a game in which they have to do simple math to win, they will quickly learn the simple math as well as fundamental problem solving. This allows the school to teach more complex math, thus preparing them for post secondary and to help fill the skills shortage.

Parents, the best thing you can do for your child is to play.

Have a great week,

Jeff