Learning math while unschooling
No, this post is not about learning math through managing money.
Growing up, I loved math. I loved the tough questions and puzzles and shapes and graphs. Perhaps, I loved it because I was good at it. Either way, I also want my students to at least enjoy it, if not love it too. I certainly don’t want them (or anyone) to hate math.
As I’ve gotten deeper into the world of unschooling and self directed learning, I’ve been surprised by the number of students that still hate math or who feel like they’re “behind” in math. I’ve also been surprised by the number of parents who are worried about their children’s math knowledge but are content for them to explore and self direct in all other areas of their education.
I expected self directed students to have a much happier and healthier relationship with math, given the space for choice, but I was wrong.
Two Approaches I’ve Seen For “Unschooling” Math
- We unschool everything except math, for which we use a formal curriculum (e.g. Khan Academy, Time for Learning, Mathnasium) because “you can’t skimp on math” or “math is a hard science and we have to make sure they know it”. These kids, in my experience so far, are more likely to hate math.
- Math is everywhere, so they’ll learn it as they need it by cooking, telling time, managing money, coding, and building stuff. Sometimes kids in this camp start to worry about their math knowledge as they get older and sometimes they don’t. Often, these kids have at least one parent that is worried about their math knowledge and future life options (e.g. college).
I wonder if there’s a middle ground between the two approaches where math learning (including intentional/deliberate practice) is more naturally integrated into a student’s self directed learning experience.
Recently, I’ve started reviewing math education research and various formal and informal approaches to math learning to see what could be incorporated into “the bag of tricks” for math learning in unschooling spaces.
My plan is to share these insights on math learning in SDE and make room for the perspectives and questions of others.
One book I’ve started reading is “Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics” by Jeremy Kilpatrick, Jane Swafford, and Bradford Findell. This book was recommended to me by fellows alums from Stanford’s Graduate School of Education who studied math ed. One point that has jumped out at me so far (among many) is that learning math is different from learning reading. I’ve often wanted to compare the two, to say that they’re both used in the service of other goals — you read about history, government, science etc and you do math to understand the economy, your budget, plan a trip, paint a room — and both should (or could) be learned in similarly informal ways. To get better at reading (once you have some basic knowledge of letters and sounds), you just read more (about anything that interests you) and talk about what you’ve read with others to get better at organizing your thoughts. So why not do the same thing with math — do more math in the service of the things you already want to do (manage your own money, get a job, start a business, learn spreadsheets, invest in stocks, build stuff, code stuff) and you’ll build math skills as needed (“just in time learning”).
But the book’s authors note that math learning doesn’t happen in the same way as learning reading (page 19):
The part that jumps out for me is:
“but a new and unfamiliar topic in mathematics — say, the division of fractions — usually cannot be fully grasped without some assistance from a text or a teacher”.
If math learning requires more instruction (of some kind — whether an adult, a text, a video, manipulatives), how can that instruction be integrated organically into a self directed education? My preference would be that students (especially younger ones) didn’t necessarily take separate math courses, unless they wanted to. That separateness of math, that it requires something more rote than everything else, can lead to distaste of the subject.
My Running List of Questions:
What are nontraditional or engaging, hands-on ways of learning/teaching math? What resources or tools are available?
To what extent can math be learned nonlinearly? With lots of stops and starts and twists and turns? As is likely to be the case for most unschoolers.
How do students learn what math skills are available to be learned? Whether for practical purposes or for curiosity.
To what extent would it be helpful for students and/or adults in SDE spaces to have a map of math skills? Would it allay any fears about their math knowledge?
How do we support SDE parents/facilitators in guiding math learning? Especially in cases where they have their own “math baggage”.
