Although the professor suffers from memory loss, he is a brilliant mathematician. He thinks almost exclusively about numbers – the study of, their theory, and their relationship with each other. Math becomes the center of the household and, in turn, the relationship between the three characters. Both Root and his mother are eager to learn from the Professor, who, due to his love of math, inspires them to see the beauty of numbers and how they connect to the world around them.
On a side note, throughout the short book, a few of us expected the relationship between the Housekeeper and the Professor to take a romantic turn. The person who choose this book was the same one who chose Fifty Shades of Grey a year ago, so there may have been an expectation. I so rarely read a book anymore that doesn’t have in-your-face drama and/or conflict in it. Some of the book-clubbers didn’t care for it, but I liked it. It was a nice story.
The book got me thinking about math. Throughout school, math was the bane of my existence. It was hard, and I developed a bit of a mental block about all the way into college. Even worse, my dad was a math teacher. Reading and writing were always a piece of cake while math and science were usually a struggle. Now, as a teacher myself, math curriculum is what I enjoy teaching most, granted it’s only 2nd grade curriculum but still. I find that my bag of tricks is fuller with math strategies than any other curricula. I’ve always heard that the more you struggle with how to do something the better you are at explaining it. Which would make a lot of sense.
The Professor in the book truly loved math and his teaching of some of the most difficult concepts was so beautifully done even I understood what he was going on about. Due to past experiences, that surprised me which I think made me like the book even more.
Five coins, how many flips to get just one head. At the moment I'd doing a Udacity course in Stats with Sebastian Thrun is a Research Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. I keep going 'what now, where did you get that' and going back over stuff I though I understood. But it's good for I feel it is refreshing my thought processes.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have bought that book btw. Not in a month of Sundays. No one in the west would see the temporariness of the Cherry Blossom in that Japanese metaphor for human life. Men anyway would look at that cover and think girly lovey-dovey crap. :-)
Most of us thought that too. So many books become predictable with that "crap" as you say so it was assumed. In fact, couldn't be farther from the truth. I think the cherry blossoms symbolized his fleeting memory more than anything else.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the stats class goes. I believe you've already taken one? Why on earth another one? :). All kidding aside, there is something about the processes of math and the orderly nature of it that appeals to me. Stats was always an area that, because of its abstract nature, was difficult unless presented in a real life, concrete way. I use it all the time dealing with assessment data analysis and it's easy, but that's real life. Geometry courses were the only ones I ever had any success with because of their visual nature. Good luck!
There was Stats in the course I did last year and I worked really hard to understand it at the time. But when I was reading over the notes I knew I had it only superficially.
DeleteWhy I'm doing them is I found maths OK til about 15 when for some reason all understanding vanished.
I think it's great, I was only teasing. :)
DeleteDD2 had to take 2 statistic classes for her psychology degree, and while she complained about it ALL the time, she did well in the 2 classes. When I was a girl I struggled with math and did well with Geometry too. I think the way it is taught today, I might have done better with it. I think a lot of my problems stem from "girls just don't do well in math."
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point. I don't think I was a "victim" of that stereotype, it was just hard for me.
DeleteI'm very much looking forward to the new common core (national standards) which we may start next year. It's supposed to be more hands-on instruction with the focus on understanding more deeply rather than the surface bs we've been dealing with the past few years. They've tried to wittle down the amount of standards we have to cover so we can teach them in depth. I can't wait!
I cannot help but feel making certain the kids can assess,start and run a business/shop when they leave school should be the goal. There are more than enough hands-on mathematics without going into the pure abstract which I believe should be left to 1st year university. And anyway if ever you speak to any college person about the curriculum in highschool. They'll tell you the useful info is in before 15. After that for the most part they are messing with concepts not touched until grad school for a MA or MSc.
DeleteI had a thoughtful response to this early this morning, but somehow it didn't pose, so I'll try again...
DeleteThe problem with our current curriculum is what we are required to cover in a school year. In math alone, we have about as many concepts as there are weeks in the school year and the fact that the kids are tested about 6 weeks before the school year is over makes the time frame even shorter. That creates an unnatural, drill and kill, guerilla approach to teaching them. The kids learn what it looks like on the test but don't have the faintest idea how to apply it anywhere else. Which, as mentioned above, is why I'm looking forward to our new common core standards. The point (hopefully) is to reduce the number of concepts in a year so the kids can go beyond the surface level and really learn. It remains to be seen if that is what ends up happening however since whenever the people who are making the decisions about education aren't in education, well you just never know.
Those basic skills you mention are so very important, and they need to set the foundation to those in the primary grades. If they leave there without those skills they'll be hard pressed to catch up.
Oh I hated Math too..
ReplyDeleteI enjoy teaching it now! But I think the abstract would still kick my butt, even as an adult.
DeleteI was atrocious at math except for geometry--aced it. Is this non-fiction or fiction? It sounds wonderful!
ReplyDeleteFiction I believe. It's a quick read, less than 200 pages.
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