Math or Maths - part I [Blogpost 97]

I have, for a while, been thinking about writing a post about math/maths. When I think of my experience in school of math, it falls neatly (no math pun intended) into two halves: Fun and frustration.

In terms of fun, I recall my primary school involving lots of hands-on activities. I was especially fascinated with and totally absorbed learning about tessellations and then using this knowledge to make, at least initially, simple patterns. I guess this love of pattern has continued in my fascination with and appreciation for Islamic art. These are two of my favourite photos from a recent trip to Toledo, Spain and Istanbul, Turkey.

Ceiling, inspired by islamic art, in the Toledo Cathedral, Spain (left) and

islamic art surrounding a window in a small mosque in Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Turkey (right).

As to the other half, I recall that during secondary school School Mathematics Project (known as "SMP maths") was the chosen textbook series and that teaching was very traditional (working through a text book from start to finish and no opportunities for collaborative practice or real life applications).

As to topics covered, I remember being totally confused (as were most of us in the class) by trigonometry. Each and every question mentioned - perhaps in an attempt to have a real life application - window cleaners and ladders (or plumbers and sinks) as well as sine, cosine, tangent, hypotenuse, adjacent and opposite. Despite having learned (or, perhaps more accurate to say, been exposed to) trigonometry, I really do not feel - despite many intervening years between then and now - any wiser as to how and when trigonometry applies to me! On reflection, I believe the teacher saw trigonometry as a math topic to be covered on the curriculum checklist and never thought to dig deeper and explain the rationale for teaching trigonometry.

While I have been honest about my frustration with some aspects of math, I have tried hard to not give my daughter the impression that math is something to be treated with trepidation. I am very happy with her math teachers who have made their classrooms safe spaces in which she has been able to ask clarifying questions and included activities whereby the math skills may be applied to real life situations (very different from my experience in secondary school). While these are best practice, it contrasts sharply with the teachers who choose to spend an inordinate amount of time grading and then not giving back homework/test papers in a timely fashion (by which time any confusion and/or incorrect procedures become truly entrenched) or choose, when asked for clarification, to say verbatim what they had said, but perhaps a little louder and more slowly!

I invite you to reflect upon your experiences of math (or maths).