Math During the Pandemic

The pandemic has highlighted some basic shortcomings in mathematics education. Over and over again in the news, we hear of parents who cannot help their own elementary aged children because of the “new” math. The simple fact is, under the common core, students are still supposed to be taught the “old” math, known as standard algorithms, the way your parents and grandparents were taught computation. 

Since math is so connected, when students are not taught those standard algorithms, they are set up for difficulty in subsequent math courses. That lack of continuity and familiarity causes great discomfort for students later. For example, not connecting the standard division algorithm to division of polynomials, to synthetic division, and then to synthetic substitution so students can solve higher degree equations using the Rational Root Theorem is troublesome and results in lack of understanding.  Not connecting the Pythagorean Theorem to the Distance Formula, the Equation of a Circle or to the trig identity, cos^2x + sin^2x = 1 also results in a loss of instructional time and ability to review and reinforce important concept and skills. Teaching these concepts and skills in isolation makes learning more difficult and students less comfortable with their knowledge.

Another issue is reading, we continually hear schools say we “learn to read in the elementary schools so students read to learn later. Now there’s some hogwash. Students are not taught to read to learn.

For instance, reading a math text is not like reading a novel. We don’t read chapter by chapter. We don’t read page by page, paragraph by paragraph or even sentence by sentence. We read phrase by phrase, our eyes then dart to the example, then to the illustration back to the example, and finally back to the text. In math, when “reading”, we have a pencil and paper by our sides. If, and that’s a BIG if, reading was assigned in math, it would be assigned by section – 2 or 3 pages. And students would need to understand you don’t read math just once, usually it takes two, three or 4 readings to get the most out of a section. That reading would also have the benefit of having students pick up the vocabulary and notation they need to be successful.

Memorization is a pain the butt, we get it, but it is necessary for success. Whether we are “forcing” students to memorize their basic arithmetic facts in elementary school, the quadratic formula in algebra or the Pythagorean Theorem in Geometry, students need to memorize.  Like most things that are repetitive, it’s not fun, it’s boring, but as we see from our professional sports teams its importance – they go through repetitive drills all the time. That’s the only way they get better. While memorization is important, so is understanding. It’s not a matter of “if” students will forget information over time, it’s a matter of “when”, so having understanding with drills and memorization is extremely important for student success and that will give them a chance to reconstruct that knowledge later.

The pandemic has highlighted how we have shortchanged our students and disenfranchised their parents as well as handicapped our students with their inability to read to learn – let’s hope we fix those when we return to a much better “new” normal.