The Tutoring Room is based on the idea that Daily Kos is full of very smart people and very smart people sometimes have questions or need help with something they're working on. Very smart people like to help other people with what they're working on, so the Tutoring Room hopes to link those that need with those that know.
Despite my user name (which is what I do), I'm really not all that interested in Math. I have a weird interest in how to teach Math, and I can rage for many minutes over methods that confuse more than teach, but I don't read books about Math. I read books about History by the arm load and once upon a time I received a Bachelor's Degree in History, but I don't teach History. That's not my choice. They (you know, "them") don't need me to teach history, especially since my concept of history is full of violence, sex, betrayal, drugs and alcohol and stunning acts of cowardice and foolishness. These have been leached from the textbooks, so if my students know about them, they got it from me. This can be good or very, very bad. Unless, of course, you have tenure.
Algebra In Our Culture
"Hey Dad, when solving quadratic equations, is it factoring or completing the square that only works if the solutions are rational?"
-from the TV show "Without a Trace"
There is no question but that the writer or writers of that TV show were looking for a question that the teenage daughter could ask her father and make her father want to run for cover. I wasn't even watching the program when I heard the question asked (my computer is across the room from the TV my wife was watching) but I could feel that immediate "Oh, crap" response that I know every adult watching the program was supposed to feel. The question wasn't about a novel, something from history or a scientific concept. It was Math; even worse, it was a question from Algebra, something only the "Smart People" know about and it is culturally acceptable to admit that you know nothing about it now and didn't have a clue about when you were a kid. That's not to say you want to admit to your kids that you don't know; that would mean your kid is on the threshold of being smarter than you, after all.
Just to get their attention (there's only so often that I can remind them that they are in a class about x education, which is good because they think about x all the time, it shows on their faces...X-box, X-games, ex-boyfriends or girlfriends...), I tell my students from time to time that certain problems are great to take home and ask their parents about. I tell them that moms will tell them that they're too busy cooking dinner or taking care of the baby and they should go ask their fathers. Their fathers will refuse to be cornered; many a father will suddenly find a reason to go mow the lawn or rake leaves rather than discuss Algebra, even at night. Some fathers will go mow a neighbor's lawn rather than admit to their kids that the kids might be farther along the education trail than dear old dad.
It comes down to the power of language. If you know the language, you have less fear. If you don't know the language, being told to "try harder" or "concentrate" or "this is easy!" or "Math is fun!" is the worst sort of cruelty. Consider that one line of dialog from that TV program:
What are quadratic equations? (Heck, break that down. What is "quadratic?" What is an "equation?")
What is a solving?
What is factoring?
What is completing the square?
What is a solution?
What is rational?
In the State of California, according to the educational Standards adopted in 1997 by the State Legislature and written into the Education Code, a normal, "Proficient" eighth-grade student, after a year of Algebra education, should be able to answer all of the above questions including that question from "Without A Trace."
Eighth grade. Thirteen or fourteen years old. Going through puberty.
Consider the effect of language on these people. In the same year, the Algebra teacher is talking about factors and factoring while the Science teacher is talking about factors affecting genetics and risk-factors for Sexually Transmitted Diseases. In the same year, the Algebra teacher is talking about solutions to equations while the History teacher is talking about solutions to problems involving large states and small states while writing the Constitution of the United States. In the same year, the Algebra teacher talks about rational, as in adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing rational numbers, while the English teacher is asking if a character's response to a situation in a story is rational.
If you are working on something, do you know all of the language involved? Do you understand the language when it is directed at you? Do you understand it in all the documents or literature you read?
And if you are a parent trying to help a young person weather a difficult time, the same questions apply to you and the young person. Do you know the language?
The Tutoring Room is in alliance with plf 515's diary series Daily Kos University and cfk' Bookflurries:Bookchat series. They have agreed to act as "tutoring rooms" when The Tutoring Room is not active. If you have a regularly-published diary series and are willing to act as a "tutoring room," please let me know in the comments.
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