The Revolution Begins With Math

A conversation between Dr. Michael Crow and Jose Ferreira

When it comes to education, we are still, in some ways, creatures of the Stone Age. We follow learning methodologies that have proven successful to humanity over eons — gathering in small spaces with some kind of master at the front of the cave, chalking what he thinks is important on the walls, separating those who are good at it from those who aren’t fast enough. Unfortunately, that model only rewards a very narrow spectrum of talent. There are at least a dozen types of human intelligence, but we organize our society around two of them, analytical and verbal, and largely ignore the other ten. That calls for an educational revolution. Our society has become larger, more complex, faster — we need to individualize education, instead of industrializing it further.

The revolution begins with math. Math is widely considered a hard subject, when, actually, it’s an intuitive subject. Certainly, there are geniuses who comprehend it at a level far beyond a normal person’s capacity, but everyone is capable of mastering the fundamental concepts of math. The reason that they don’t is that our teaching methods are no longer up to the task. Luckily, we now have the the capability, technology, and insight to individualize learning. We don’t have to be constrained by the cave any longer.