The scene: Robbie's kindergarten classroom.
The time: The present. Monday morning, to be exact.
The Cast of Characters: The Teacher; Child A; Child B.
The background: Children were working on a spatial reasoning assignment: cover a given space with exactly five pattern blocks--no more, no less. (The picture below shows a couple of first graders working with pattern blocks. Besides the hexagons pictured, there are 5 other pattern block shapes.)
[The Curtain Opens]
The Teacher (looking over Child A's work): Nice job! I see you did it with two trapezoids and three triangles.
Child A (pleased): Yeah. I know 2 + 3 makes 5, so it has to be 5 altogether.
The Teacher: Do you think there's another way to do it, or do you think this is the only possible way to cover the shape with 5 pattern blocks?
Child A (hesitantly): I think there's probably another way...
Child B (across the table, overhearing): There IS another way! There's ALWAYS another way!
[The Curtain Falls, to Thunderous Applause]
In truth, there isn't always another way, and some "other ways" are inefficient or unnecessarily complicated. But quite often there are multiple approaches, and this is good to keep in mind. Math education has suffered from the widespread idea that there is one path to enlightenment, scuse me, the right answer, and that this path is mighty narrow. It's nice to see a five-year-old who already has formed a dissenting opinion. Here's hoping she keeps this perspective as she moves on through her education.
No comments:
Post a Comment