My Parent & Math Teacher

 

These days everyone is bit aware as to what is happening around the world. Thanks to technology. But the events around also started to pose a question as to what is going to happen to children education. Parents are also concerned as to what would be the best career option for their child. They are always seeking to find answers for questions such as how much money should they spend on education? How are their children doing compared to those in the rest of the world? Are enough of our citizens getting graduate degrees? Do we have enough scientists and are they smart enough? These questions go on and on with discussion and debates. Among many subjects since Kindergarten -12, Maths is one where problem arises. Many students either perform poorly in the subject or are least interested. There is a social belief that one who scores high in maths is extremely smart as compared to others. Yet such smart mathematical proficient individual lacks social adjustment skills.

It is difficult to answer some practical questions which pose out with hypothetical answers which may be true or may not be. Such questions might be whether our students becoming too calculator dependent? Or should students be taking even more advantage of technology? Do students have basic arithmetic skills? If not, does it matter as long as students understand the concepts? If students are now learning more important content (such as statistics and discrete mathematics), is it then okay to let other skills fall by the wayside? What if a child does not learn mathematics? How will he or she do on standardized tests? Whether the child be able to graduate to major in whatever they chooses as career subjects, or will mathematics be a stumbling block? Whether the child know the mathematics that needs to be known to have a successful and happy life? Are these questions really that important? Does mathematics education affect all of life, or even much of our lives? High school is always a time of turbulence whether this get sorted itself out in college remains question till one finishes college degree? May be, not in the case of mathematics. The issues about mathematics education go beyond K–12 grades. After secondary school mathematics courses are the fear of many students. Even among majors in mathematics there is now a disconnect between the teaching and learning. The result is delays and difficulties in obtaining an undergraduate degree in mathematics. There is a national shortage of mathematics teachers, and many who are teaching were far from the nation’s best mathematics students.

So how does one deal with whole loads of question. The child is the one about whom discussions and debates occur among teacher and parents without understanding the capability of child. Parents have a fear that if the child fails the standard maths test or exam than they may fairly not do well in any other exams. Sooner they attach the stigma to the child that he or she may fail in their life as an adult due to poor mathematics skill. It is a pity that parents or teachers do not realise that during their school years, education system and curriculum was totally different as compared to present times. The resources to solve the subject had been scarce during the time when they were in high school. Presently, the learning objective of subject and its application has changed.

Recently I saw one of the post of my colleague on Facebook, it made me to wonder what made him write such post. My colleague had written about one of the Maths teacher that her skills of teaching during matriculation has not been so great. The result was that he lost one year after post-secondary in learning different way of doing subjective mathematics, which further destroyed his chances to apply in engineering mathematics in one of the best college. Therefore he has to rely with mediocre college and in his present job he is put on a position which is lower than his peers who had succeeded from top college in which he would had been selected had he been not able to waste one year for learning another way of doing mathematics. I do not have answer to his question but I did get the point that one must be careful as to his or her career options and start working a year before if already focussed on something and secondly there should be no fear to dive for new opportunities at later stage even though some chances got missed.

One must understand that mathematic education in grad colleges is quite different from post-secondary with regard to curriculum. Moreover the mathematics Professors are completely out of touch as to what is taught from K-12 in schools.

Actually, elementary teachers have even less of a chance than mathematics professors of influencing the field of mathematics education. Elementary teachers are called on to be specialists in all areas, including mathematics, but often suffer from an insufficient background in mathematics. Usually they are expected to teach mathematics without having either much experience in mathematics or mathematics education. Lately, elementary teachers are handed a mathematics curriculum based on the National Council of Teachers. This curriculum is completely different from what they have ever seen before, and not only do they lack the mathematics background to teach it successfully, they do not have the education background to do so. Secondary mathematics teachers are only a little better off. Many of them have the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, some mathematics education courses, and many general education courses. However, almost none of them has a background in mathematics education research, and thus they are likely not doing the decision-making. In fact, many secondary mathematics teachers are caught up in the math turbulence themselves; not happy with the very curriculum they are being told to teach and not feeling they have a voice. Secondary mathematics teachers are pressured from many sides. They must meet state standards, produce students who have excellent scores on standardized tests, and, in general, keep everyone happy. Keeping everyone happy is nearly impossible, because various agents or coaching institutes rolling everywhere want nearly opposite things. Even to say that everyone wants a mathematically literate population is not helpful. The very definition of mathematical literacy differs. I might think someone is mathematically literate if he or she can do arithmetic calculations and solve day-to-day mathematical problems. Someone else might define mathematical literacy as being able to use a calculator to problem-solve and to make decisions about mathematical situations that arise in life.

Everyone has a different opinion as to how they look towards subject. Both Parents and teachers miss a big part that is they can create well of knowledge for the child yet the interest is the first point where the beginning should happen. So the gap between parents, elementary, secondary teachers should be bridged. They should update themselves with ample knowledge so as to understand their part and role of responsibility before levying everything on child’s head.