Old Math

Another lesson on the to-do list is prepping a math chapter for the 6th graders. This is from the infamous “Continued Math” series. I have serious problems with this book, including:

- It is very wordy. I think I understand the rational, might as well polish up on those reading skills. Problem is many (most?) of the students at my school speak English as a second language. It seems unfair that in a subject that has a universal language, one that has a concise set of symbology, these kids are getting hit over the head with their lack of language skill, again.

- Because it is wordy the book is huge, as are all modern text books. (It is almost as if the text book publishers get paid by the page. Oh wait, they do.) This one is broken up into little booklets, which encourages an attitude of “finished that chapter, never need to remember that again!”.

- Because it is wordy, huge and broken up into many separate booklets it is pretty much impossible to find a specific item unless you have been through the whole book, and have an excellent memory, which is sadly no longer true for me.

- But my REAL gripe is the total reliance on the “constructivist” school of education where students learn by exploration and discovery. My favorite example is an activity where students “discover” that the sum of the interior angles of a polygon is equal to (n-2)*180 degrees, where n is the number of sides of the polygon. How do they discover this? By drawing polygons and measuring the angles with a protractor. So this is good exercise with the protractor but the mathematical proof of the “discovery” is never mentioned. Argh! One of the most elegant and simple constructions in all of geometry, that the sum of the interior angles of a triangle is 180 degrees and that all polygons can be broken up into triangles. No logic, no deduction, no chains of reasoning.

I get quite a bit of leeway in how I present material, the kids I work with are either a slam dunks to pass any and all standardized tests; or don’t have a chance at all. Plus I am a volunteer, so there is no financial incentive to do things the “right” way. I see no evidence that a constructive approach works better than a traditional approach. I am giving it a try; we will scale drawings with rubber band pantographs and discover scaling laws. But don’t be surprised if I happen to blurt out a few truths along the way that someone else discovered, say a few millennia ago.

It seems just a few days ago I was looking at a long break from school, plenty of time to prep some lessons, rest up, get organized. Time does fly when you are avoiding work.

Today I am going to put together a little electronics experiment for the 8th graders in Mr. P.s class. The hardware is a 9V battery, an adjustable resistor, an LED, and two fixed resistors; all in series. The procedure is to turn a knob on the adjustable resistor and to measure the voltage across the components. If done properly the voltage across the two fixed value resistors should be directly proportional to each other and the voltage across the LED should stay almost constant. The mathematics aspect comes in play when the students analyze the data and determine the ratio of the two resistances. I have four voltage meters from a corporate donation I finagled last year and four experiment sets. With close to 30 students this is not a good ratio but the experiment should go very quickly and we can do it in two shifts if we want.

I am of mixed minds about this. When I was in school mathematics was strictly an intellectual exercise; we scratched diagrams in the sand with sticks and if anyone asked "What is this good for?" the teacher had his aide give the student a penny, then booted him out of class. Today when I am asked that question I answer, "To improve your brain to the point that it can solve whatever problems you are interested in." Which only satisfies some students.

A small percentage of the students in the 8th grade class will find the experiment interesting, that is the target audience I suppose. The rest of the class will see that math is good for figuring out electricity but who cares about electricity? I don't have time for this stupid experiment; my cell phone is ringing…

Last summer I worked with the school district summer school program with kids with severe needs. It was a great experience, a skilled and coordinated team and another volunteer beside myself so we had an adult to work with each child.

One of the children was D., about six years old, a tiny, cute girl with CdLS, a genetic disorder. She was mute but taught me a few American Sign Language signs. She could be very funny, when she heard some music she liked she would start a dance that would crack us all up. She was a "runner", a child who would take off as soon as your back was turned, but that was no distinction; all of the kids in the class were runners except the ones that were wheelchair bound. Mentally she was still a baby, which is part of the charm of these kids.

One of the teachers I worked for sent me an e-mail this morning telling me D. died on Christmas Day. I thought of D.'s father who took time from work every day to bring her into the classroom and had such obvious love for the girl, such happiness to be with her. I stand in awe of some of the parents of these children, what might seem a heavy burden becomes a shawl of beauty and grace on their shoulders. This is what it means to be a good person.

Since I have started working with the severe needs group there have been three funerals of kids that were in the program, this will be the first for a child I knew personally. It is an aspect of the work I had not considered, it is grievous news to any teacher to learn one of their pupils has died; in loco parentis means in the place of the parent and I can't imagine anything more devastating than the death of a child. For most teachers it is a rare occurrence, for a person working with kids with severe disabilities it is a regular thing. One more reason to admire those people, I still feel privileged that they have included me in their group.

Meeting with Dad, by the way, was a disaster. Dad (a military man) started right off the bat attacking M., the regular math teacher, for "not being in control of the class", (which is utter nonsense, she does a very good job).

Ms. M. did an amazing job of keeping her cool, maybe that's what education school is all about, you learn to suffer idiots with grace….

We had a teacher in the school that had retired from the military and thought teaching would be a nice second career. She didn't last two months - the kids LOVED hearing her try to raise her voice above the din. One of the most effective teachers I have worked for spoke in a hoarse whisper. The kids would strain to hear what he was saying. Amazing.

Anyway Dad's son will not be in my Algebra class next week. The kid was way behind the class and with no support from Dad there was no way to catch up. I am sure the boy will be mortified and his friend will ask me why he is not in the class. No comment kids, now let's look at this curve called the parabola.

Holiday break in two more days. Not a moment too soon, everyone is getting a little wound up.

I sent out progress reports for my Algebra I class on Tuesday. The one item of interest is this: the smartest kid in the class is getting a D. In his regular math class he is getting an F. In class he is right on top of things, answering questions, right on topic, gets the point of the lesson before everyone else. Outside of class he forgets about little details like, oh say, homework or take home tests. I think he has never had to exert himself; he can rely on brilliance and a great memory. Algebra takes practice; you don't get it the first time.

We are meeting with Dad on Friday. I think Dad needs to modify his extra-curricular activity schedule but I will follow the regular teacher's lead on this.

Richard Pryor died Saturday. He was 65.

When I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis some ten years ago I looked around for someone in the same predicament and found Richard Pryor. We had almost nothing in common, a scrawny, black, comic genius with a history of coke addiction and a hefty white engineer. But we both had something wrong in our brains that we could not understand or do anything about. The suffering on Pryor's face was always right on the surface, when it was suffering from racial injustice, or his own demons or his failing body the pain was visible for all the world to see. I think that is part of what made him so funny, we laugh because we are looking at a mirror and it makes us a little uncomfortable, so we laugh to chase away the pains.

Since then there have been other celebrities who have chosen to tell the world that they, along with half-million other Americans, live with MS. Teri Garr, also a greatly talented comic. Neil Cavuto, a TV commentator.

But for me there will never be another Richard Pryor.