This 10 minute video is from the website TED – Ideas Worth Spreading which I feel is a great web site and now they have an application for the iPad that I use often. As a parent, school board member, and math major I find this idea about how to teach math very intriguing and certainly worthy of further discussion. I cannot state at this time that I agree with everything that is mentioned by Conrad Wolfram particularly with respect to how much computation is enough. I feel there has to be some amount but I agree that at this point in time we are placing to much time and emphasis on it and that the other three areas he mentions are much more important and applicable to future career success and the national economy as a whole.
The sad truth is that it will take more time than it should to implement this philosophy within the realm of public education. So in the interim it is up to parents to try and supplement their child’s math education with real life applications and to try and force the issue to be discussed within their local school district.
I hope you enjoy watching this video and it gets you thinking as to how you can help your children get the most out of math.
