My first thoughts for this blog are not about adapting to where I live, but to how I was taught. When the public schools tried to teach me arithmetic, I adapted by withdrawing into myself, where I was comfortable. I daydreamed, "zoned out". If I payed attention, it was to watch the teacher teaching and the class responding. This was all I could do once I found myself left behind - when the teacher proceeded to explain concepts building on skills I hadn't mastered yet. I've gotten along fairly well as a person since then, having developed my own stilted, time-consuming methods of dealing with numbers and leaving proficiency in that language to others. My parents, after brief attempts to coach me and have me tutored, just encouraged me in my love of art and writing. My "first language" being images, and my second being English.
This morning CBC Radio aired a half hour segment on how it is that Canada's global position in math scores has fallen to the 13th place over the past seven years. The discussion was entirely around teaching methods - new versus old methods of teaching arithmetic - which they consistently called "math". According to those interviewed, the issue is students' lack of proficiency in basic math skills, and whether the problem is the recent emphasis on teaching a diversity of methods of calculation rather than the traditional ways of ciphering. The goal of course, as I see it, is to teach general "math literacy", which is the ability to think with numbers.
They didn't say "literacy" either, but I figured out that numeric literacy is what's wanted - ahhhh! Numbers is indeed a language, and arithmetic is the vocabulary. Some people's brains are wired to easily think in numbers, and some are wired to think in images or words, or kinetically with body movements, or a combination of these signals. Learning a new language requires immersion for sufficient lengths of time, and the time required varies among individuals.
So the key is time. Each student requires enough time to absorb the concepts and to practice the skills involved in thinking and communication with numbers. I remember loving the first lesson or two in any new concept - like the number line, the first lesson of algebra. And working with triangles when Trigonometry was introduced. I delighted in following the mysterious recipes of Logarithms. When the basics in each new skill that was introduced I thought to myself, "Maybe this is something I'll be good in!" But I failed to memorize tables of math facts, which slowed my progress and eventually I was left behind again. I still have to calculate what seven times eight may be, by a roundabout route. Now I wonder if I had been given more time to think in numbers, the necessary literacy may have sunk in.
Following this requirement of time, the obvious culprit is the structure of the school system. The bell rings and the Math books are put away - it's time for Spelling or Geography. Doesn't matter if some of the students missed something that will leave them at a disadvantage in the next Math class, and even more in the next. All 30 students in the average-size class are expected to learn at the same speed, in 45 minute periods - regardless of their strengths or weaknesses, their interests or their fears. So students will adapt, find their way around subjects that frustrate or frighten them, and grow up handicapped or not, literate or not. Those who adapt well to the school-imposed time frame for learning will graduate with honours and many of these will find careers in the school system. The rest of us will adapt in different ways - but don't ask me how to do "Math".
