Lakoff and Nunez (2000) refer to a romantic view of mathematics where a mathematician is someone who “is more than a mere mortal-more intelligent, more rational, more probing, deeper, visionary” (p.340). This is contradictory to the ideas on creativity expressed by Robinson when he compares the abilities of professors with those of dancers. He stresses the recognition that all people have intelligence or a talent in some areas. Not being strong at math does not make a person any less intelligent than a mathematician. It is simply their talent, or the area in which they are intelligent. Each person has the capacity to be highly intelligent in something, but not necessarily the same thing. This is an important notion for educators and something that needs to be shared with learners. My own children will often say how smart a classmate is I always correct them and restate that the person is smart in math or biology or merely more capable at studying and listening.
Despite agreeing that math is not everyone’s strength I do feel that math needs to be taught to our students, but more efforts need to be made to help them make connections to their own lives and to see the relevancy of studying math. I love to share with my little Grade One students the book Math Curse by Jon Scieszka (1995) just as an example that math is all around us and necessary to explore. We all use money, follow patterns, count, measure, compare and so on. I do not think that people connect all of this to mathematics. Students need to see these connections so that the study of math has more purpose for them. All will not become mathematicians, but all will need to use math. Musicians, actors and dancers need to keep time, carpenters must measure, cashiers must count money, etc. Davis (1995) states that there needs to be a change in a math teachers thinking and actions from working to explain math to working at affording students experiences to interpret (p.23).
References
Davis, B. (1995). Why teach mathematics? Mathematics education and enactivist theory. For the Learning of Mathematics, 15(2), 2-8
Lakoff, G. & Nunez, R ( 2000) . Where mathematics comes from. Basic Books: USA.
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