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Math-ish

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Math-ish

Finding Creativity, Diversity, and Meaning in Mathematics

HarperOne,

15 min read
8 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

In a data-driven world, students need to get excited by a math that’s not narrow but diverse and open.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Eye Opening
  • Visionary

Recommendation

High schools in the United States typically teach mathematics in a narrow, mechanical way. There’s only one way to solve a mathematical problem — and only one answer. Students are obsessively tested and placed in math education streams, ensuring widespread inequalities. As a result, even high-achieving students often hate math, and avoid university majors that involve mathematics. Encouraging a better relationship to mathematics should involve playful, creative thinking and ideas, and collaboration with a diverse group of people. What needs to be taught isn’t exactly mathematics, but “math-ish.”

Summary

Educators must replace today’s narrow approach to mathematics with a more flexible, diverse approach.

Most people learn mathematics in a “narrow” way. In the narrow form of mathematics taught to children and young adults for over 100 years, there’s only one valid approach to a mathematical problem, and only one solution. Narrow mathematics is a stolid, plodding enterprise. It doesn’t transform numbers into something more tangible, like images or physical objects, and does not involve being creative or the free play of ideas. Students are constantly scrutinized and evaluated based on tests. The narrow mathematics approach and the performance-oriented culture it engenders has spoiled mathematics for literally millions of students. Some 60% of university students drop their science majors after taking introductory math courses — even talented, high-achieving students.

Narrow mathematics denies people the sheer joy of mathematical ideas and what they can reveal — to the detriment of society at large. Fortunately, there’s an alternative to narrow mathematics, rooted in two core ideas: “Mathematical diversity” refers...

About the Author

Dr. Jo Boaler is the Nomellini-Olivier Professor of Education at Stanford University. She is the author of the first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on mathematics and of the bestseller Limitless Mind.

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