Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Living Math

Just found this site, Living Math...looks interesting, and thought I'd put it here so I'd remember to look at it further.

From the site:
~ Insisting a child must be taught traditional, scope-and-sequence arithmetic to learn mathematics is like saying one must learn classical notes and scales before one can learn music. You might get there, but you miss out on the inspiration of beautiful music created by the masters along the way. We need not master all the "basics" before being able to experience the appreciation that carries us through the hard work of learning. Think of applying living math principles as developing a "mathematical ear" while working toward the mastery of basic theory. ~
As someone who thought I was always bad at math because I couldn't (or just didn't) memorize the times tables in 4th grade (but then went on to memorize whole songs/extensive lines in plays/etc...) then as an adult realized I LOVE spreadsheets (Excel) creating formulas, etc...I think I could have benefited from a non-traditional approach to math. Or maybe I already did.

2 comments:

peggy said...

I couldn't agree more about math.

I took a non-traditional math class at PSU not too long ago and LOVED it. I was good at it! This was huge for me and the class really changed the way I think about math and about how people learn.

Carolyn said...

Yes! Maybe I should take that class, too!