great question by will richardson
great adventure dan meyer is taking to bring math back to life (huge grazie)
wondering myself (as we are experimenting with it in the lab) about this (my comment on dan's post):
i am a math lover - so please take this in that vein. and i love what Dan and everyone is doing here. i just watched Dan's recording from saturday... great stuff.. take a listen if you missed it.. here.
however... i have to nudge a little..
what if... we trusted more in the math... that it will just show up. (mathematical thinking vs some real life event we can paste a text book problem over) i absolutely love the 4 layered problems by the way..
what if.. we even quit talking about the math... let the kid just dive into the whatever (let's say basketball here) let them notice they love basketball, imagine themselves going pro, or whatever, let them question/research/seek out what and who would they then connect with in order to do that... and then facilitate that. [interesting article here along those lines]
after it's all said and done... math will be there - no?
if we're in an environment where we need to - yeah - go ahead and point out specific math topics - after the fact - or strategically along the way. but i'm thinking - preferably - let's let the natural mathematical thinking happening all around us daily just be - just show up. maybe math goes nameless for a while.. maybe then intrigue in our art will just happen... like we all crave.. (as opposed to classroom management issues that arise while teaching math and a lot of time and effort to fit real life into math)
i know this is edgy and risky. no ill intent or disrespect. just seeking more humane ways - for all of us.
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