Schooling Math

There are always people giving talks about math education.

I always hear, the way math is taught is boring.

Boring boring boring.

No, some people find it boring. But others will enjoy mastering the system.

The truth is, you can make math the Amazing Race and some people will hate it. The point is there are some things everyone needs to know, and if you have a good teacher, he/she will make sure everyone knows it.

Everybody should be able to understand up to fractions and algebra. It should be expected in that we expect everybody to be able to write coherent sentences. No, not everyone can do it with the same amount of effort, but that's just a matter of applying oneself.

Why? Because you literally need to know 8 things:

1) Addition and subtraction
2) Multiplication and division
3) What a numerator and a denominator is
4) Multiplication of fractions and inverse multiplication of fractions
5) Finding common factors; how addition and subtraction apply to fractions
6) You want to isolate the unknown in an algebra statement
7) If you move something to the other side, invert the operation
8) How to translate a word problem into algebra

From grade 1 to 8, we have eight years to teach this! EIGHT YEARS! Fractions might be hard for some people, but not literally "can't memorize 4 rules in a year of practice" difficult!

Look at the mathematical proficiency in China. India. Japan. Are their kids smarter? No, they're told to suck it up and work harder. Are their systems the best? Definitely not in all ways but with respect to math, it gets the material taught and it proves that the material can be taught.

What about people who need to know more math than that? Well anyone who needs to know more math than that is going to need to know a lot more math than that, and when you get to higher levels, looking at "boring equations" and learning "boring rules" is not going to go away.

Aiming to teach people how to formulate their own solutions sounds clever, but when your problem is fluid dynamics, nobody has the time or energy to rediscover the Navier-Strokes equations on their own. You get your stupid equations, you get your stupid rules on how to use them and you learn to plug numbers in. If you can't handle that, look into doing something else.

The curriculum is fine; if you want to overhaul the educational system it always comes down to finding the best teachers and attracting them. Overhaul that instead.