The following TED video, given by mathemagician and professor Arthur Benjamin (about whom I’ve previously blogged about here), embodies the best idea I’ve heard about math education in a LONG time. Perhaps ever. Just as I recently posted about how games like backgammon embody the 21st century in replacement of games like chess for the 20th, statistics is the central branch of mathematics for the 21st century rather than the calculus centric view of the 20th century. If you’re into math and math education, this will probably be the best 3 minutes you’ll spend today.
Posts Tagged: Education
20
Oct 05
A Dream I’ve Had for Years
So I just read Brad Wray’s explanation of both what he does and what he wants to do. Ultimately, Brad wants to teach social studies. I think this is a noble and wonderful pursuit, and his dreams have got me thinking. Its got me thinking on something that I’ve had in my head for several years but haven’t articulated much verbally because I’m half-scared to death that it just might happen if I start talking about it.
Here’s the dream: I’d like to start a school. I’m not sure if it would be a classical high school or a liberal arts college. It would be a place where kids learn to think. I think about this a lot because so many of my friends (you are probably one of them if you’re reading this) are so damn talented. Most of them would be fantastic teachers. I wouldn’t require anyone to have a Ph.D. if it were a college, although that would be great; and I wouldn’t even care if people didn’t have their secondary education teaching certificates, cause I think that’s all a bunch of bullshit anyway. Seriously folks, how many people do you know who aren’t “educated” to the maximum are absolutely brilliant in comparison to those who have all sorts of meaningless degrees? I know several.
So I just wanted to put that out there. I have a mental list of people who I’ll ask to teach if this ever goes down, but if you’re interested just let me know and I’ll put you on the list.
