Memorization vs Thinking

I know I am not the sharpest knife in the draw but I am not the dullest either, yet when it comes to memorization of facts, I am at a loss. Vocabulary words do not stick in my mind, no matter how much I study them. I remember studying Spanish with my son and even after 30 minutes of going over the same words, I still needed to refer to the list in my hand.

Over lunch, an English teacher was complaining that her students could not memorize a simple list of words, no matter what she did. I tried to explain my deficits to her, but she wanted no part of it. She kept talking about her "fun" activities and her constant repetition. I kept telling her that while I am sure she was fun and did lots of activities, I would be having the same difficulties. She kept saying how memorization was easy, much easier than doing a math problem or writing an essay and kept stressing how this simple process should enable all her students to pass. I couldn't convince her that everyone learns differently and what was easy for her might be difficult for someone else.

I hate memorization, probably because I am no good at it. I like understanding. I like knowing how and why things work and being able to apply that knowledge to any activity I have to undertake. When I first tried to use a graphing calculator, I tried to memorize the steps. Once I gave up on that and concentrated on the why and how it worked, I was able to do it all.

I hate it when my students demand formulas for concepts they can easily figure out, or at least figure out (if not easily) with a little bit of effort. I would rather see them rotate their page 90 degrees to do a transformation then regurgitate a formula that has no meaning to them. I am having a hard time convincing them that memorization only works sometimes, it work in exact patterns and it only works when you remember every step.

Many years ago, my husband saw a recipe for a pie on the food channel that looked interesting and he decided to try it. The problem was, he only saw half the recipe and because necessary ingredients were missing, his dish was inedible. Incomplete memorization causes the same problems.

Thinking is as vital to life as oxygen and water. Only when we get back to teaching and encouraging this will we be able to help create the leaders of tomorrow.

Different Day, Same Issues

Ednotes posed a question from a math teacher. Another teacher, Saddleshoe, Although I commented there, I had to vent here as well. If we don't do something soon there will be no hope for future generations.

(Pictures from an earlier post)

No matter what I do, half the kids in my geometry class are clueless. I'm not talking about the kids that do nothing, I'm talking about the kids that try.

I decided to take the suggestion of an administrator and talk to the kids about their problems. One of the kids I work with a lot just showed me his PSAT scores. He only scored 34% in the critical reading category. If the child can't read and pick out details, he can't put clues together to solve a geometry proof. Figuring out whether he has consecutive angles or opposite angles in a parallelogram is beyond his scope of understanding. They know that the distance formula is used to show line segments are congruent, they repeat this over and over. They know that a triangle is isosceles if two sides are equal. On exams, they use the slope formula to do proofs involving these concepts. Another kid showed me his math score which was 29%. How can this kid be expected to learn geometry either?

The administrator suggested I talk to other teachers and see if they are having the same problems. I asked Mr. P how his class was doing. He said "Fine". I asked, "Approximately what percent of your class is passing?" He answered, "I have no idea. I don't look at those things." I did hear him and another teacher agonizing as they marked the first part of the midterms about the same mistakes my students make.

One boy told me it would have been better if he had paid attention in the beginning of the term. While that would have made a tremendous difference, it still would not have compensated for his inability to solve word problems. I am at a loss as to how to reteach him all the things he might have learned if he had paid attention.

The DOE is running a big campaign, Keep It Moving NYC Schools, touting the success of our schools under the reign of Klein and Bloomberg. Why aren't there any real reporters out there showing what is really going on in math education today?