Excellent Explanation of How to Teach Math in The Atlantic – But…

…as I commented on the site, where do we get the teachers?  (The article, which I recommend is at http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/11/the-stereotypes-about-math-that-hold-americans-back/281303/#disqus_thread)

“I am a former math professor. I totally agree with the author about how math can best be learned.  There is a gigantic hurdle: where do we get the people (teachers) who themselves were taught (in college) math the way this article proposes? To see the problem, look at how my chairman at Washington University in St. Louis (an “elite” school) wanted me to teach a course (in differential equations) and then ask why he wanted me to teach it that way. Here is what he told me.

“… [this] is a cookbook course and always will be.” He later explained to me, while he was laughing heartily, “If I wanted to impart more mathematical understanding, this would not be the course that I would pick…”

Was this a disagreement over methods? I don’t think so, he later explained that,

“…Face it, Engineering is always a problem. We just wrested [a course] from them, which we teach better, and we don’t want to have to give up Dif. Eqns…”

My chairman forwarded me the following emails, telling me these were among the things he was having to “deal with”. They were from a parent and his son. The parent said he “was told” that the class average on the last test was 47 (NOT even close) and asked the Deans to look into the issues (about my course in differential equations) and see if his concerns were merited. Apparently, the Deans (who never came to me) asked the STUDENT for his opinion. The student gave me “one week” to “allow any changes to take place” but, sadly, he didn’t observe any. As a matter of fact, he observed that the homework assignments, mainly from MIT’s course, “…are very dissimilar to the questions we see on the exams…” Actually, some of the MIT homework problems are not only “similar” to problems on the exam, they are ON the exam. (The letters and the story are on my blog inside-higher-ed.com. Click on “A Tale Out of School”.)

This cancer (of treating students as consumers) has metastasized into a lack of integrity invading almost every organ of some institutions of higher education. It has gone even so far as granting PhD’s to unqualified candidates because the university could get a “national need” grant.  Some of these PhD’s go on to be college professors at regional state schools and many of their students go on to become teachers; and they don’t learn well enough to be good teachers.

Until we solve this problem of unscrupulous administrators and professors, we don’t have a chance.  They will just keep conning us.”