Why Math Class Is Boring—and What to Do About It
Math is portrayed as something you get or you don’t. Most of us sit in class feeling like we don’t. What if the standard curriculum were a gross misrepresentation of the subject? What if it were possible to teach mathematics in a manner naturally incorporating the kinds of activities that appeal to children and learners of all ages?
In 2002, Paul Lockhart penned “A Mathematician’s Lament,” a 25-page essay that was later expanded into a book
In the essay, Lockhart declares that students who say their mathematics classes are stupid and boring are correct-though the subject itself is not.
- The problem is that our culture does not recognize that the true nature of math is art, and so we teach it in a manner that would just as easily ruin any other art.
What other subject is taught without any mention of its history, philosophy, thematic development, aesthetic criteria, and current status?
Mathematics should be something we engage with because we find it to be a fun, challenging process capable of teaching us new ways to think or allowing us to express ourselves.
- The less practical utility or relevance to the rest of our lives it has, the more we’re truly engaging with it as an art.
What if art students spent years studying paints and brushes, without ever getting to unleash their imaginations on a blank canvas?
Next year they take Pre-Paint-by-Numbers, which prepares them for the main Paint-By-Numbers sequence in high school
- The goal is to give these kids a good foundation in what painting is all about, so when they get out there in the real world and paint their kitchen they don’t make a total mess of it
What we learn in school is merely the end product
We don’t teach the process of creating math. We teach only the steps to repeat someone else’s creation without exploring how they got there-or why.
- Mathematics is treated as something absolute that needs no context, a fixed body of knowledge that ascends a defined ladder of complexity. There can be no criticism, experimentation, or further developments because everything is already known.