Re: Paul Lockhart's book reviewed in the L.A. Times!

From: barkofdelight <barkofdelight_at_yahoo.com_at_hypermail.org>
Date: Sat, 25 Apr 2009 05:29:27 -0000

--- Rin wrote:

> I write on the board, My husband used to beat me. He's dead now.
> Then I change the period to a semicolon.


You see, this is exactly the kind of thing that
we're talking about. What you've done here is
conveyed to the students a subtle yet important
distinction in a way that they are likely to remember
and almost certainly enjoyed. There was no need for
drills or repetition here. In fact it could be
argued that this *single* example would be far more
effective than 1000 boring exercises on the topic.

And how did you do this? You did this by of course
having an understanding of the actual subject matter
but more importantly, by *thinking about it* and caring
about teaching it well. This was a puzzle that you had
and it mattered to you to solve it.

Regrettably, such caring and thoughtfulness is the exception,
not the rule.

Bark!
Received on 2009-04-24 22:29:31