β
IN THE SCHOOLS Memorizing multiplication tables may be a seminal school experience, among the few that kids today share with their grandparents. But a Stanford University professor says rapid-fire math drills are also the reason so many children fear and despise the subject. Moreover, the traditional approach to math instruction β memorization, timed testing and the pressure to speedily arrive at answers β may actually damage advanced-level skills by undermining the development of a deeper understanding about the ways numbers work. βThere is a common and damaging misconception in mathematics β the idea that strong math students are fast math students,β says Jo Boaler, who teaches math education at the California university and has authored a new paper, βFluency Without Fear.β In fact, many mathematicians are not speedy calculators, Boaler says. Laurent Schwartz, the French mathematician whose work is considered key to the theory of partial differential equations, wrote that as a student he often felt stupid because he was among the slowest math-thinkers in class.
β
β