maybe I'm attaching too much importance to the gift exchange.

The actual subject matter doesn't matter anywhere near as much as the reasoning.

This is exactly my point, though. For the students that actually learn how to reason abstractly using quadratic equations, it's great content. But the current system doesn't require that - they need to know the skills, not the reasoning. And I believe that most students don't need to learn each and every Algebra skill in order to reason abstractly and, indeed, being forced to learn them all actually overloads many of them to the point where reasoning is the last thing they do.

I don't know if I'm making sense. It's late. Bedtime!

Holy shit! What do I say?

The truth -- I'm sorry, I never intended for you to see that email. I'll forgive you if you forgive me.

I agree, the algebra curriculum can sometimes be overly broad. I think that quadratic equations would more logically go in Algebra II, with all the other conic sections. Also, I've seen a whole lot of students who seem to have gotten lost somewhere in pre-algebra and never got found again -- I'm specifically thinking about ability to work with fractions. If they can't add fractions, then they can't add rational functions. My university has a course called "College Algebra" that's really Algebra I and the beginnings of Algebra II -- enough to get people up to speed to be able to take actual college-level math.

And, I totally agree with you about too much stuff overwhelming students to the point where it negatively impacts their reasoning. When I'm working with students who seem to either have a really spotty math background or are math phobic, I've found that asking, "Does this answer make sense to you?" to be helpful. Gets them to focus on thinking about what the problem is really asking, rather than getting too bogged down in the mechanics of it. (Also, I love graphing calculators or math software with an overhead projector for demonstrating stuff about how the equation relates to the picture. Change this coefficient, the graph moves this way, the roots change like this.)

I also think that I'd put some basic probabiity into Algebra I. Not for future math courses, but for general ability to understand the world.

We are sleeping on our new mattress tonight!

I bought it with money from my book advance. (The second half they pay when you turn it in.)

This is very satisfying to turn my words into a bed.

The previous mattress? Fourteen years old and swaybacked like a cartoon pack mule.

Thinking about this a little bit more, I think that also, some kids get frustrated with math early on because they're presented with material that they aren't developmentally ready for yet. Things like, say, borrowing in subtraction, require the understanding of place value, and how subtraction itself work, and how the numerals written on the paper relate to the actual numbers, and so on. And some kids might not get that level of abstraction at age 6, but maybe they would understand it fine if they learned it at age 8. But by age 8, they're already moving on to multiplication and division, and the kid now has the idea that "I'm not good at math, it makes no sense, and all I can do is memorize the rules and follow the steps to get to the answer."

(I was one of those kids. Just no good at pencil and paper math until about fourth grade. I remember lots of times breaking down in tears and screaming, "I'm no good at math!" Got moved down into a lower math group, which helped because we weren't expected to do as much, and had a teacher in third grade who spent a lot of time on place value, which seemed to be the missing piece I needed. And that summer, stuff just clicked in my brain. Played Math Blasters, a computer game that drills arithmetic problems, a lot that summer, and by the time school started in fourth grade, I was fine at arithmetic. Actually, that seems to be the time when a lot of stuff had that "click" -- that was also the year that I finally understood phonics, and could sound out words.)

Yeah, I've had mixed success when I've tried that line myself.

In my experience, when kids ask you why they should bother learning stuff, they usually don't actually want an answer. They want you to experience a blinding flash of truth and say, "Oh my god, you don't! Screw this, let's play video games for the rest of the year."

Not that that ever keeps me from answering them, in the hope that one day it might sink in.

Hil, that's exactly what I think. When Hec told me that Emmett was learning exactly what I was teaching my 8th-graders, I realized how stupid they must feel, learning this same thing over and over again every year. By 8th grade, what they've probably learned REALLY WELL is that they're no good at math. And I have no idea how to help that except for serious individualized attention -- essentially an individualized curriculum with a tutor -- but most of the kids last year never bothered going to tutoring, besides which it was once a week. Argh!

In other news -- I'm going to Spamalot! I had pretty much given up on ever going, but it's playing in Columbus and my mother's already bought tickets for us. Go Mom! Er. It's not Mom-cringeworthy, is it? I once went to a play with my mother and grandmother, and I cringed because my mother was seeing the dirty jokes, and my mother cringed because my grandmother was seeing them, and my grandmother quite enjoyed it. Although I think she said she was glad her mother wasn't there with her.

I never got trigonometry in school. I could follow the formulas and stuff, and od the little problems, but I never got what any of it meant. I never understood what a cos or a sin was, and what the answers I was getting meant. Still don't. Crazy maths.

I could follow the formulas and stuff, and od the little problems, but I never got what any of it meant. I never understood what a cos or a sin was, and what the answers I was getting meant.

Yup. The tragedy of the American... wait, you're not in the US, are you? Okay, the tragedy of western math education then.

The truth -- I'm sorry, I never intended for you to see that email. I'll forgive you if you forgive me.

This.

This is very satisfying to turn my words into a bed.

This is very cool.

Speaking of words and beds, I actually got a good night's sleep. The first in awhile. I think it was having the fan/AC running in the room all night--when I woke up in the middle of the night, I'd fall asleep again 5 minutes later because the white noise drowned out all the little noises, DH's occasional snoring, etc. Which made me realized how tired I've been ever since we moved to the new place--we stopped using an air filter thingummy because the place seemed better ventilated somehow. But I miss that steady whir.

Anyway (because I really am speaking of words too), this morning I'm regretting going ranty on one of my online weekly critique partners. I mean, she clearly didn't get what I was trying to accomplish in the scene. I knew it hadn't worked and was asking for ideas for how to fix it, but she seemed to have a problem with the concept as well as the execution...and, well, the concept in question is What the Whole Story is About. Power and justice and who deserves to have power. So I was all, "Don't you understand what I'm trying do to here? And haven't you yet noticed that everything I write is about power, that it's my core theme?!" And now that I've slept, I'm all embarrassed and wishing I'd said all that with about 90% less ranting.