04 Oct 2005 - 15:59

Colin breaks his silence

Colin, my stepson, has agreed to blog about his experience of high school precalculus (he's a junior in his school's EB program, getting ready for AP calculus next year). I'm sticking his picture in for fun. -- Carolyn

Hello, my name is Colin Johnston and in this post I will describe the horrors of high school algebra.

On the first day of my junior year, I stepped into my math class. I will leave names out so as not to offend anyone. I had heard mixed reviews about the math teacher that I would have this year, but people generally said he was a pretty good teahcer. As the bell rang, the class sat down and waited patiently for him to enter the room. He slowly stepped into the classroom. He looked like a smart enough guy. He then passed out the textbooks and walked to the front of the classroom. He began talking about the curriculum we would cover this year, his grading scale, etc. He then said something, however, that didn't go down as easily as the other things he had mentioned. He said "You kids have been told how to do everything in your math careers. That is, up until now. This year, you are going to learn how to teach yourselves."

What? Then why don't we just take this class at home, over the internet? What is the point of having a teacher that doesn't teach? I made these same arguments to my friend after class, but he just shruged it off. "It will probably get better as the year goes on." He said. I guess I would give it a shot.

But as this year has gone on, things have gotten worse if anything. Now, the norm for the class is come in, sit down, spend an hour correcting last nights assignment (it takes so long because everyone has so many questions), get the new assignment, and puzzle over it for 10 minutes until you finally give up due to complete lack of understanding. Such is life in the new new math, Constructivism.

-- Colin

Back to main page.

---

---

Comments

After entering a comment, users can login anonymously as KtmGuest (password: guest) when prompted.
Please consider registering as a regular user.
Look here for syntax help.

---

Hey Colin,

I appreciate your report and hope to hear more of them. Just so you know, I had a teacher like that in high school geometry. She had us do the assignment from the night before and had us read the book to get the instruction. (Luckily we had a good book, but still...)

I went to the head of the math dept and complained and said that she doesn't teach, she expects us to do everything. His response: "This is a wonderful opportunity to learn." My reaction (unstated at the time) was the same as yours. Why not stay home then? Why have a teacher?

You'll probably hear this excuse again in your lifetime. It's a shame it's happening to you. This is a good forum to ask questions about math, though, in the meantime.

-- BarryGarelick - 02 Oct 2005

---

Colin,

Thanks for doing this. It gives us a fresh perspective (as well as reminding some of us of the horrors of high school math class.)

I had a few teachers like that. Unlike Barry I didn't have the nerve to think that maybe it was the teacher that was the problem.

-- SusanS - 02 Oct 2005

---

Good lead!

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Oct 2005

---

That's ridiculous.

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Oct 2005

---

If Christopher ever gets a teacher like that there will be Open Revolt in the Ranks.

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Oct 2005

---

This is a wonderful opportunity to learn.

And I say this is a wonderful opportunity to stop paying this teacher's salary.

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Oct 2005

---

I had exactly ZERO teachers like that, ever.

I've never even met a teacher like that.

Disgusting.

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Oct 2005

---

Great essay, Colin!

Thanks for writing it!

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Oct 2005

---

Barry's right; this is a GREAT place to ask questions. In fact, I plan to ask a couple myself later on today.

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Oct 2005

---

Now I'm bugging my sister to write about her daughter's experiences with CONNECTED MATH and a completely unhinged teacher last year.

Things got so bad that my sister pulled her daughter out of school altogether, 6 weeks before the school year was over.

She told the principal, "I look forward to the truant officer coming to my house."

Needless to say, the truant officer didn't show.

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Oct 2005

---

The parents of kids in this class need to be screaming and yelling.

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Oct 2005

---

hey, colin. keep 'em coming.
i never had any teachers quite as irresponsible
as the one you've described ... but i had
any number of 'em who were just about as ineffective
as yours appears very likely to turn out ...
one of the things that contributed (quite a lot
in my estimation) to me eventually turning pro:
hang out with the math-heads (in school ...
you're currently a vital participant in
the hippest online math ed community
in the known universe ...).

and always remember what aunt mimi told john lennon:
"a guitar's all right ... but you'll never make a living with it."

-- VlorbikDotCom - 02 Oct 2005

---

Colin

Stinks doesn't it. This is what you can DO about it.

First, get a good textbook - I like Sullivan's Precalculus which you can buy very cheaply on half.com in an older edition. This book is well designed for self-study.

Consider dropping the course and taking it at a local university in the evening (if there is one).

Find a tutor - maybe some retired engineer in the neighborhood will help out if you cut his grass.

Get far enough ahead of the game so that you are not wasting class time floundering around.

Do whatever it takes to get a good teacher for AP Calculus next year. Figure out who is likely to teach it and how your schedule can be manipulated so that you can have this teacher.

Colin, this is your opportunity to demonstrate to yourself and the rest of the world that you are ready and able to take charge of your life and make things happen.

-- KtmGuest - 02 Oct 2005

---

you're currently a vital participant in the hippest online math ed community in the known universe

Hey!

That should be our motto!

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Oct 2005

---

Sullivan's Precalculus

I'm going to see if I can find this book.

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Oct 2005

---

KtmGuests, if you're still around, here are the 2 Sullivan books on precalculus I find:

Precalculus: Graphing and Data Analysis (2nd Edition)

and

Precalculus (7th edition)

I assume you're talking about the latter?

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Oct 2005

---

---

Update

Colin is getting robbed even worse than I'd thought. The combination of this graphing-calculator-centric approach and a teacher who isn't doing jack is deadly.

Expect a blog item on this this evening.

I am totally outraged, and I don't actually outrage easily (Catherine is usually in charge of the outrage department).

-- CarolynJohnston - 02 Oct 2005

---

more update

We ordered Colin a copy of Sullivan's Precalculus -- we hope that was the thing to order.

He thanks you all and promises to keep in touch (I should explain that when he's not with us, he lives with his mom in another state).

He also wants you to know that his older brother (my other stepson) reports that the AP Calculus teacher at this school was good -- although, come to think of it, I was around the year that Al was studying calculus, and I had my reservations about it at the time.

-- CarolynJohnston - 02 Oct 2005

---

He really likes physics, he tells me. So I'm psyched about that!

-- CarolynJohnston - 02 Oct 2005

---

Sullivan's a good choice. I've seen the text. Much better than Demanna, Waits and Texas Instruments.

And Colin: If anyone at your school tells you that your precalculus class is "a wonderful opportunity to learn", let us know, pronto.

Carolyn: I've seen this calculator based atrocity before; believe it or not it shows up in the pages of NCTM's standards (PSSM).

For all of you: High school wasn't the only time I heard that refrain "wonderful opportunity..etc". At U of Michigan, I was taking advanced calculus and the professor teaching it was FOB from Poland. A brilliant mind, but no one had taken into account his English speaking capabilities, which were zero. I complained, again to the head of the math dept. (Seems to be a pattern with me). After some minutes of an apology which amounted to "Welcome to the real world" he said the magic words: "This is a wonderful opportunity to learn." Now, mindful of the whining would-be engineer's essay on Joanne Jacob's blog, I will take responsibility for my shortcomings in that class. But I have to say, about a year ago I tried to plow through that book again. It's "Advanced Calculus" by R. Creighton Buck. Lemme tell you, you don't want to trek through those mountains without a shirpa.

-- BarryGarelick - 03 Oct 2005

---

Ooooh... Buck's advanced calculus book.

When I was first at LSU there was a geriatric professor (a very good one, actually) teaching advanced calc out of Buck.

"It's a little book," he told the students on the first day of class. "It has almost no volume at all. But it's so dense you can hardly pick it up."

-- CarolynJohnston - 03 Oct 2005

---

i also "studied" with buck.
(what the heck; i was a cocky undergrad
and still thought you weren't supposed to work hard.
i went to all the lectures and then waited
until the last possible minute to try all the homework.
got me through (one semester) with a B.
but of course i didn't get much out of it ...).

anyhow, it's a great book. i refer to my copy
probably at least a couple times a year.

-- VlorbikDotCom - 03 Oct 2005

---

Yes. I recommended Sullivan's Precalculus and not the other.

This text is full of good advice on how to learn math and it is structured to facilitate self-study. For example, every example in the text is keyed to specific exercises and the student is advised to work a keyed exercise immediately after working through the example.

When I taught the course, I never used my calculator projector, although at times I made suggestions as to how students - whose previous course relied heavily on these things - might use their calculators profitably.

-- CharlesWilliams - 04 Oct 2005

---

Barry

I complained, again to the head of the math dept. (Seems to be a pattern with me). After some minutes of an apology which amounted to "Welcome to the real world" he said the magic words: "This is a wonderful opportunity to learn." Now, mindful of the whining would-be engineer's essay on Joanne Jacob's blog, I will take responsibility for my shortcomings in that class. But I have to say, about a year ago I tried to plow through that book again. It's "Advanced Calculus" by R. Creighton Buck. Lemme tell you, you don't want to trek through those mountains without a shirpa.

I have no qualms about whining.

Teachers should teach.

Period.

If they don't want to teach, we don't need to be paying their salaries.

If an un-taught advanced calculus course is a wonderful opportunity for a student to learn, I say it's also a wonderful opportunity for the professor to take an unpaid leave of absence.

-- CatherineJohnson - 04 Oct 2005

---

Charles W

This text is full of good advice on how to learn math and it is structured to facilitate self-study.

Thank you!

That's fantastic.

I've already got my own copy ordered.

-- CatherineJohnson - 04 Oct 2005

---

There is a big difference between not teaching, such as what Colin's teacher is doing, and a teacher expecting the students to pre-read and begin doing problems before the material is formally taught, suac as what some high school tecahers and most math profs do (or at least used to do).

Wasting valuable class time reviewing problems is not really productive. I believe that in many of the high performing asian countries the student is expected to review his own homework.

However, forcing kids to do a little pre-work tends to elevate the level of discourse when the new material is taught.

-- KDeRosa - 04 Oct 2005

---

However, forcing kids to do a little pre-work tends to elevate the level of discourse when the new material is taught.

That is actually a huge strategy with LD kids. It's called 'priming.'

Unfortunately, as with so many other good ideas, this is the Entire Concept of 'spiraling' as we know it in constructivist curricula.

The idea is that the child will be 'primed' to learn difficult material because he's seen it before, in earlier grades.

Which is not how priming works, as far as I know.....

-- CatherineJohnson - 04 Oct 2005