It seemed to be a simple task. Select a book related to your content area, read the book and contact the author to conduct an interview. The list of titles was so intriguing, I couldn’t select just one—I chose five books to purchase:
I figured one, I’d use for my project and the others I’d read in my spare time.
While title the "Drunkard's Walk" title, really aroused my curiosity, I didn’t think I could complete the book within the given time frame. Instead, I began reading " A Mathematician's Lament – How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form" by Paul Lockhart. This book really hit home with me and I witness so much of what the author writes about every day. From teacher resistance to teaching inquiry based lessons, to computation skill and drill only and not enough problem solving, to students being told they’re good at math when they’re really just good a memorizing procedures and following directions. Today’s data-driven education system requires so many more formal assessments that it seems that teaching has become a never ending cycle of teach- assess-reteach. There’s hardly enough time for students to explore math the way Mr. Lockhart suggests. So much of the “teach” portion of the cycle is “tell” or “show”, leaving little time for activities that will develop the deep conceptual understanding that will prepare our students for success. I couldn’t wait to talk to Mr. Lockhart – I flagged many pages with post-it’s—questions and comments swirling around in my head… I was so excited!!! Naturally, I Googled his name to find contact information and quickly found an email address and website. Unfortunately, it was a different Paul Lockhart (an engineer) that quickly replied to my email. He says he gets mistaken for the mathematician all the time and wished me well in my endeavor to contact the other Paul Lockhart. After checking the usual social media outlets, I still had no contact information. Eventually I was able to track down the school phone number where the mathematician Mr. Lockhart teaches and left several messages.
Here’s a sampling of the questions I was looking forward to asking:
Finally, I obtained an email address and sent my interview request, but it wasn’t meant to be. The interview never happened.
With the assignment deadline fast approaching, I moved on to another book, “Innumeracy” by John Allen Paulos. After reading the first chapter, I contacted the author and he did reply, but he was out of the country and couldn’t commit to helping with my assignment. I did read a couple of chapters of “Innumeracy”, a term I must admit I wasn’t familiar with. While I agree that there are consequences to being mathematically illiterate, I thought his examples were a little over the top. I didn’t get a chance to finish the book but hope to complete the text in the near future.
And so, the journey continues. I stopped by my favorite bookstore and ran across another book that could be used for my assignment. This time, it was “Number Freak” by Derrick Niederman. I was really getting close to the deadline for the assignment and this book, which is chock full of interesting facts about the numbers from 1 to 200 seemed to be a winner. Before I started the book, I contacted the author, Professor Derrick Niederman. I explained the assignment and he agreed to be interviewed. After sharing the potential interview topics such as his view on the state of math education, he told me I can find such views in chapter 9 of one of his earlier books “ What the Numbers Say”. It took some digging around, but I was able to get my hands on a copy of “What the Numbers Say” from the public library and dove right into the book. Like “Innumeracy”, this book discusses is how math is intertwined in every situation and gives practical information to help develop one’s quantitative reasoning skills. Again, the excitement was building as I prepared, finally, for my author interview. The date and time were set and my questions were ready. Two days before the interview, I was told I needed to attend an important data conference that conflicted with my scheduled interview. No problem, I thought, I’ll just reschedule the interview.
Needless to say, the journey continues... I’m still waiting to hear back on a reschedule date—maybe the university where Mr. Niederman teaches is on quarters instead of semesters and he’s on his winter break? I’m optimistic that this interview will eventually happen. Until then, the journey continues and I’ll keep reading, and learning, and enjoying the work of these authors.
- The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow
- Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos
- A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart
- A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper by John Allen Paulos
- Geekspeak- How Life + Mathematics = Happiness by Dr. Graham Tattersall
I figured one, I’d use for my project and the others I’d read in my spare time.
While title the "Drunkard's Walk" title, really aroused my curiosity, I didn’t think I could complete the book within the given time frame. Instead, I began reading " A Mathematician's Lament – How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form" by Paul Lockhart. This book really hit home with me and I witness so much of what the author writes about every day. From teacher resistance to teaching inquiry based lessons, to computation skill and drill only and not enough problem solving, to students being told they’re good at math when they’re really just good a memorizing procedures and following directions. Today’s data-driven education system requires so many more formal assessments that it seems that teaching has become a never ending cycle of teach- assess-reteach. There’s hardly enough time for students to explore math the way Mr. Lockhart suggests. So much of the “teach” portion of the cycle is “tell” or “show”, leaving little time for activities that will develop the deep conceptual understanding that will prepare our students for success. I couldn’t wait to talk to Mr. Lockhart – I flagged many pages with post-it’s—questions and comments swirling around in my head… I was so excited!!! Naturally, I Googled his name to find contact information and quickly found an email address and website. Unfortunately, it was a different Paul Lockhart (an engineer) that quickly replied to my email. He says he gets mistaken for the mathematician all the time and wished me well in my endeavor to contact the other Paul Lockhart. After checking the usual social media outlets, I still had no contact information. Eventually I was able to track down the school phone number where the mathematician Mr. Lockhart teaches and left several messages.
Here’s a sampling of the questions I was looking forward to asking:
- What is your opinion about Colleges of Education that exists in universities today and how they prepare teachers for teaching math content?
- How would you change the current process or curriculum for obtaining teaching credentials for mathematics?
- In your book you recommend that teachers must give good problems. What resources (books, websites, journals, etc.) do you recommend for teachers looking for good, rich math problems to give to their students?
- As a college student in my senior year, I remember being fascinated by the interesting content of a “number theory” course and thinking to myself how math became so interesting after Calculus I, II, III and Differential Equations. I realized that most students would never get past these courses and never experience the joy of such advanced math courses…what a shame! When did you come to realize that math was an “art” and the creativity associated with discovering math?
- How would you use your book for professional development?
- Do you see your book as a tool or required group reading?
Finally, I obtained an email address and sent my interview request, but it wasn’t meant to be. The interview never happened.
With the assignment deadline fast approaching, I moved on to another book, “Innumeracy” by John Allen Paulos. After reading the first chapter, I contacted the author and he did reply, but he was out of the country and couldn’t commit to helping with my assignment. I did read a couple of chapters of “Innumeracy”, a term I must admit I wasn’t familiar with. While I agree that there are consequences to being mathematically illiterate, I thought his examples were a little over the top. I didn’t get a chance to finish the book but hope to complete the text in the near future.
And so, the journey continues. I stopped by my favorite bookstore and ran across another book that could be used for my assignment. This time, it was “Number Freak” by Derrick Niederman. I was really getting close to the deadline for the assignment and this book, which is chock full of interesting facts about the numbers from 1 to 200 seemed to be a winner. Before I started the book, I contacted the author, Professor Derrick Niederman. I explained the assignment and he agreed to be interviewed. After sharing the potential interview topics such as his view on the state of math education, he told me I can find such views in chapter 9 of one of his earlier books “ What the Numbers Say”. It took some digging around, but I was able to get my hands on a copy of “What the Numbers Say” from the public library and dove right into the book. Like “Innumeracy”, this book discusses is how math is intertwined in every situation and gives practical information to help develop one’s quantitative reasoning skills. Again, the excitement was building as I prepared, finally, for my author interview. The date and time were set and my questions were ready. Two days before the interview, I was told I needed to attend an important data conference that conflicted with my scheduled interview. No problem, I thought, I’ll just reschedule the interview.
Needless to say, the journey continues... I’m still waiting to hear back on a reschedule date—maybe the university where Mr. Niederman teaches is on quarters instead of semesters and he’s on his winter break? I’m optimistic that this interview will eventually happen. Until then, the journey continues and I’ll keep reading, and learning, and enjoying the work of these authors.
