"...there are many things going wrong in mathematics education.
For me, one of the best short descriptions of what's going on was written by a mathematician called Paul Lockhart. He is a mathematician who's also taught maths in K12 schools, and he was so exasperated by what he saw in schools, he wrote something really beautifully written called A Mathematician's Lament
...I'm sounding very critical of mathematics education but I'm not at all critical of teachers because teachers have had to work in ways that are educationally damaging for some time. So I don't blame teachers for the bad state we're in. They've been living and working for decades in a culture driven by ridiculously long list of content standards. And those standards made them feel they have no time to stop and create engaging activities for kids. And nonstop testing of very narrow content and multiple choice tests.
There's hope now in the United States with the onset of the common call that that's changing. On top of that, they've really felt like their professionalism has stripped away. Even when they do take an extra step and do something great, I've heard stories of administrators coming in and shutting them down, and that's why it's so important that everybody, administrators, parents, teachers, learned about good mathematics instruction.
Of course there are great administrators and teachers who've been able to ignore the pressure and done what they know to be right with the kids. But that's hard to do with all of the directives and it happens very rarely.
For me, mathematics is a living act. It's a performance, a way of interpreting
the world. And we urgently need both to address stereotypes and myths and to bring mathematics back to the real mathematics. The mathematicians used and that's out there in the world.
Teachers, administrators, and parents, all of us can do this, especially if we
work together. Everyone has a role to play."
class.stanford.edu
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