Connected Math: A New Perspective
Subject:
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 13:28:17 -0800 (PST)
From: POUNCER
Reply-To: pouncer@aol.com
To: tim@pisd.org, askpisd@pisd.edu
Some guys must be really really, like, hostile towards the
district to be making a federal case -- for real -- out of
this whole big new math thing, aren't they? I wanted to
try and share my feelings with you.
I really really like and feel good about what I've heard
about the new math program, you know? I wish I'd had
something like it was I was a kid, because, you know, I
was never any good at the traditional math and stuff. And
I feel like this new stuff is going to help kids like me
who were more, like, words and picture-oriented, and not so
-- well -- like, linear thinkers. I mean, like, when I was
a kid, there were just a few kids who were really, like,
focused on math. And everybody's different, you know, so
that's like okay for them, but it was tough on the rest of
us. And with diversity and all, everybody's got sort of
different kinds of intellegence, and everybody's got
their own personal learning style, and this new new math
style thing feels really sort of holistic and creative.
Really, you know, it's like right-brain intellegence --sort
of artistic and all, and there's maybe going to be kids get
this program that maybe never, you know, "got" real serious
math before. And so, that's like a good thing for kids who
were like me.
On the other hand, I'm feeling so much, like, hostility and
negativity here, and I feel like, you know, how when I
didn't get the old math, 'cause I was so creative and all,
there're people -- parents I mean -- who just don't "get"
the new math. And I've been meditating on that, and I feel
like that anger grows out of their own learning styles, and
the kinds of intelligence they have. You know? It's like,
I want to say to those guys, you guys ARE the linear
people, the ones with really focused memories, and the old
math really reached out for you, and you, like, embraced
the math and made it all part of yourselves. I mean -- and
I still know people like this -- there are people who LIKE
knowing how long division works or how to, I don't know,
but say, turn some dumb fraction into a percentage. That
would be, for sure, such absolute torture for me -- but I
really do know people who enjoy that sort of thing. They're
the left-brained people, you know, and they have that
really traditional linear thinking thing deep in their
inner-being. And maybe they aren't really creative -- or
maybe they are, I mean, or you are ... I shouldn't say.
It's not like one kind of intelligence is better than
another -- so it's not like a DIS - ability --we're not
even supposed to use the term "learning disabled" anymore,
right? -- so you parents are like, "Differently-Abled"
because you're all linear and left-brained and so, like,
strictly logical and just don't get the holistic creative
discovery math. But that's not wrong, I'm saying. It's
just a different intellegence. And I keep telling myself I
have to reach out, you know, and embrace the diversity.
But I try to do that, and I feel all kinds of fear, and it
feels like it's really a valid fear. So maybe being linear
people you all have, you know, linear kids. I'm not saying
like anybody is born that way, -- or maybe they are... I'm
not a teacher, I don't know whether, you know, Nature /
Nuture --whatever, but I _DO_ feel for sure that kids are
really really like their parents, right? And so if you
parents are differently-abled and can't get the new math
... I really am afraid the kids won't get it either.
And when I was a kid, and I didn't get it, that was like
about the worst, ever. And nobody made any allowances for
me, because, back then you know _I_ was the one who was
differently-abled, only they treated me like I was truly
stupid -- just a ditz, you know. But I'm not a ditz, I'm
just really creative. So I understand this new math thing
you're doing. But if a kid is handicapped by not being as
creative as I am, he may never figure it out. And that's
what this takes, you know. Discovery learning.
That's so cool if you're a discoverer, but linear people
are so, like impatient and focused, they don't want to stop
and figure it all out, they want to go straight to one best
answer and move on. And so, a kid who grows up like that,
and gets stuck in a discovery class where he's not, you
know, developmentally mature enough for holistic self-
directed sorts of learning agendas, he (well, or maybe she)
he's going to get all lost and bored and maybe be, you
know, disruptive or uncooperative. And I wonder if that's
part of what happened in, you know, Littleton, was kids who
couldn't "get it" and nobody reached out to them. That's
just so sad, and makes me feel so awful, you know, I want
to reach _all_ the kids even those left-brainers. 'Cause a
kid who's differently-abled. might start behaving, you
know, inappropriately. And that would be bad for MY kids
or any kids who are trying to discover things. Because,
you know, like this is a real team-think kind of process
and if somebody is differently-abled on that team and they
can't participate in the discovery process, like --well,
then, NOBODY is going to get anywhere. I mean, like,
teachers can't be expected to teach one class with two
radically diverse kinds of learners. So linear kids who are
so outside the discovery box, you know, -- especially if
the parents are differently-abled in the same way as the
kids -- they could like ruin the class for the others.
It'd be like, trying to teach algebra in Vietnamese.
Nothing says Vietnamese kids can't learn, but is it fair to
make the teachers work harder to reach them? I mean, when
the parents and the whole background culture and the
learning styles and ---well, all that stuff is just more,
well, sort of-- sort of repressed and focused, but it's
not _wrong_, really, but it's not fair to the teachers who
have to teach discovery learning to kids who really respond
best to guided or --what do they call it-- traditional
instruction? And if a kid is left-brained, and isn't
getting direct instruction like he needs, it's not fair to
those kids. And it's not fair for the linear minded
_teachers_, you know. And I mean, I had a few of _those_;
and I bet PISD still has some of those same ones. They're
the sort who feel good about the old math, too, and I bet
a really creative administration could figure out how to,
you know, match the creative teachers with the holistic
kids and the linear-minded teachers with that kind of
differently-abled kids. And that could make everybody
feel good, which is, you know, really important for our
self-esteem, right?
So like, even though the new new math is a good thing for
creative people like me, I feel like the way to maximize
the potentials of all the diverse kids, with many kinds of
intellegences and all, the schools still need to offer the
old math as well as the new math.