I doubt anybody wants to listen to this, so it's all going under a cut. But when I woke up for work tonight and checked my Twitter feed, there was this Washington Post editorial about the state of math education in the US. I actually agree with some of his points. A lot of textbooks have gone in bizarro and unhelpful directions trying to stir up math interest in students and in the process have completely missed the point. Unfortunately, so has the person who wrote that editorial. Among other things, so far as I can tell, no we didn't "survive the new math of the 60s," in the sense of it being a fad that came and went, we just now call it plain old "math."

( Rant )

So, after all that, I guess my point is that yes, there is a huge problem in math education in this country. Yes, some of it is the patronizing dumbing-down of concept applications and some of it is the cramming of advanced concepts and operations into what should be basic courses. But not because "there's no need to love math," but rather because there should be no need to fear it. If we would actually give people a solid foundation in their basic skills, then spend algebra focusing on true problem-solving techniques instead of over-emphasizing "how to make numbers and letters dance on a page" ad nauseam, we might actually make some progress in math and science education. Because seriously, those of us who are destined to be math geeks will go off on our own and have fun with making numbers dance on a page, seeking out or even creating bizarro setups to play with laws of exponents and rules of logs, because it really can be fun if that's your thing. But there's no reason to torture people with it who don't have any reason to care, especially at the expense of teaching the actual core concepts and how they apply to the real world.

Speaking of the real world, now that I've got this rant out of my system, I suppose I should get to work.

The area where I live had a very large Haitian population, thus so does the college I attend, and I have quite a few long-standing "regular" tutees who are Haitian. One of these students came to me for chem help yesterday. The tutor who'd taken her appointment request earlier had already tried to say something comforting and warned me not to say anything about the earthquake, as she had tried to say something comforting/encouraging and had been asked not to bring it up again after the woman had broken down and cried.

This other tutor also asked how we could offer some sort of meaningful support to all our fellow students who have loved ones in Haiti. Honestly? I haven't a clue. The ones who are still coming on campus are probably mostly in a similar headspace: terrified of what news they'll eventually receive and trying desperately to keep on with life anyway.

Same student is coming back today. The most I can offer her specifically is a couple of hours of getting lost in the solving of gas law and solution problems.

Maybe I'll stop by Student Support Services on the way in to see if they have any suggestions.

There are few things I find as torturous as knowing someone is in pain and not being able to help.