Math In The Lower Grades

AgileBoy pointed me (indirectly) to this interesting article on the Psychology Today website. In it, you'll learn (among other things) about an experiment in the late 1920s/early 1930s in which several American schools stopped teaching Math before Grade 6. The theory being tested was that kids 10 years old and younger don't get much out of their Math education anyway, so why not delay its start until Grade 6 when their brains are better equipped to understand it? The results were surprising, to say the least!

I have to admit, as I started reading the article I was very skeptical. I see examples of young kids grasping Math quite well and continuing to excel at it as they move right through high school. In my book, No Kid of Ours is Failing at Math (How Parents Can Help), I even relate a story - told to me by a friend - involving Math drills in a very low grade and the positive effect they had on several members of that class. And yet the article at Psychology Today makes a compelling argument that most kids get very little out of Math at that age, and that they can more than make up the lost ground later on.

By the time I'd finished reading the entire piece, I could see some truth in what the author was saying. I suspect there's a difference between what "the norm" is in the American public school system and what we have here in Ontario, but even so: how many of our primary grade teachers were "Math-phobic" (as the author of the article puts it) when they were school children? I'd never considered that question before. Now that I do, I realize that it's probably a disquieting proportion of them.

When I tutor Math, one of my goals with every student is to instill in him or her a love of Math. It obviously doesn't always work out, but I'm pretty sure I succeed more often than not. I'm not sure, however, that many teachers are achieving that... or even striving for it! It's possible that all of the many other concerns they have to deal with - maintaining discipline, using different styles for different learners, making sure the curriculum is fully covered, keeping parents happy and off their backs - may occupy their time so much that something as intangible as "fostering a love of Math" might not even enter into the equation. If so, then this is something parents really have to take on, as best they can.

Not to sound like a broken record, but that's where my Math book for parents can help.

[Update Mar 28/10: Thanks to another Twitter friend, I saw this intriguing document that relates to the earlier link in this blog post. It's highly recommended to anyone interested in this topic.]