Sometimes, private education does more harm than good. If my memory serves correctly, Kumon taught some very haphazard tricks for doing linear algebra, which actually stumped me when I hit university because I underestimated learning Gaussian elimination properly due to overconfidence from Kumon.
First of all, I decided to become a teacher because I am jaded by just how much in tech is profit-driven and polarizing . Now, within there, mathematics is inherently a part of it, and results on polynomials or number theory are just fascinating on their own right. Still, I do not see myself as a "math teacher" per se.
That makes a lot of sense about institutions that teach math. It makes sense that these places would teach procedural math that is based on 'arbitrary' steps that students may not understand. It's interesting how that made you overconfident in university- seems like an important discussion about relational vs instrumental understanding.
ReplyDeleteI like your dedication to math over profit! I think it's an inspiring take that students will maybe not immediately understand, but will definitely influence the way they view math. I'm interested to hear more of why you don't consider yourself a 'math teacher'. What part of the identity doesn't connect with you?