Category Archives: math reform

a series I wrote about how the math curriculum could be modernized

Is Most School Math Useless? Part 5: What should the math curriculum be?

If you’ve read parts 1 to 4 of this series, you may be confused. I the first part I said that not much of the school math is useful. In the second part I listed a few of those useful … Continue reading

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Is Most School Math Useless? Part 4: The usefulness of useless math

Some of the most ancient math texts found on clay tablets from 1800 BCE in Mesopotamia are filled not with ledgers and bookkeeping but utterly ‘useless’ questions like “If you subtract the side length of a square from its area … Continue reading

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Is Most School Math Useless? Part 3: What are the most useless math topics?

I’d estimate that about 15% to 20% of school time in K-12 is spent on math. Elementary and middle schools often have their students do 90 minutes of math a day. And it is common for students to take a … Continue reading

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Is Most School Math Useless? Part 2: What is the most ‘useful’ math?

What if your house was burning down and you could only save one box of your things? What would you save? Fortunately most people will never have to make this decision but it is still an interesting exercise where you … Continue reading

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Is Most School Math Useless? Part 1: What does ‘useless’ mean?

I’ve dedicated my life to teaching a subject I love and have loved since I was a small child. This country, and throughout the world really, a lot of resources are dedicated to teaching students math. From Kindergarten to 12th … Continue reading

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