Let’s Do Away With Math Class

Let’s do away with math class. Seriously. I have watched my kids struggle and struggle, sometimes to the point of tears, with the page (or heaven forbid, chapter!) of math in front of them. These same kids can do a box score, calculate players’ stats and figure out team rankings with stunning alacrity. So why isn’t math meeting them where they are? Why are we teaching math concepts as stand alone rules to memorize instead of as tools for them to use in discovering the information they care about? And it doesn’t have to be sports! That was just the example close to hand. Kids care deeply about a lot of topics - and math is in there. For that matter, while sports aren’t the only example, math isn’t the only topic. While we’re at it, let’s do away with history too! And English, and art and science! Why do we segregate out topics and study them in isolation? Why not study, oh, say, rivers? Or brown bears? Or trapeze artists? Take a topic, any topic (honest). You will be able to delve deeply into all the topics, with joy and in context. For example, let’s revisit the river idea. There’s tons of science in a river. What is water? What makes healthy water healthy, and what does a fish kill tell you? What do we need to look for to see if the river is doing ok, and why do we care? How do rivers impact the rain cycle? The groundwater? Fishstocks? Bear populations (hint, they eat the fish) and the ecosystem that branches out from there? To find those answers, what’s the math we need to work the questions? You’re going to need to know measurements and equations to run certain tests. Why are so many of the globe’s big cities sited along rivers? How have rivers shaped history of settlement, warfare, the spread of technology? “The Moldau” by Smetana was written about a river - how does the music evoke it? What works of art feature rivers? How have various artists portrayed them? How would you portray a river? What are the properties of water you need to capture? What are the rivers of great literature? The Nile? The Mississippi? What do rivers represent in the narrative? You can go so many places, so deeply and profoundly, by exploring

ideas instead of drilling on subjects. Imagine the future with kids who grew up in an education that honored and celebrated curiosity! Imagine what the world might be if your future butcher grew up connecting the health of a river to the history of global culture! So, yes. Let’s do away with math class. No more formulas and rules removed from real life meaning - let’s get back to explorations and chasing down questions! Let’s get curious!