Math Overhaul

The TED talk by Dan Meyer explained how math curriculum in schools today is more harmful to students than helpful. He says that this curriculum is just regurgitated information that only needs a formula to solve. Meyer proposes that math problems need to be simplified to just the basic shape or picture; to let the students come up with the questions to solve and to discuss with others how to solve the problems. The way that Meyer gave his TED talk was by using the methods of how he teaches his own classes, and he shows the results of this type of teaching and how different classes around the world tried this technique. I completely agree with Meyer that students need to be able to come up with their own mathematical equations and not be fed information that can easily be solved with a simple formula. I know that for me personally, math is a class that is very boring and something that I really don't want to do. The prospect of solving math by making an equation with real-world objects sounds a lot better than solving problems in a textbook that follow the same guidelines. The concept of using real-world items and situations is especially appealing to the type of math I'm currently in, which is geometry. Geometry is a math class that is one of the easiest places to apply real-world ideas and situations. Seeing real objects that have the shape you are learning how to solve makes learning a lot easier, and the teachers can let students come up with problems and solutions to those shapes. This type of math teaching/learning is an evident form of intrinsic motivation, and how students can be creative and learn as long as the right system is implemented to learn in and the students don't have information and questions that they are required to answer. Students (as well as most adults) would rather find out what the problem is and solve that rather than be given a problem and solve it, and then to another one that is the same thing.