Pedagogy: Mathematics’ Overused Condiment
I first encountered Sriracha sauce 15 years ago. A Vietnamese restaurant across the school I used to teach at became my first introduction to this cuisine and, at the time, ultra-cool, spicy condiment. Funny, while I think I almost became addicted to this sauce, I only desired it when I was jonesing some Vietnamese.
Today? I can’t remember the last time I had Vietnamese. And, I think I still like the taste of Sriracha, but the $#%@ sauce is everywhere!
The following quote is from an article entitled 9 Ingredients Chefs Have To Stop Using. Guess which one was at the top of the list:
“What started out as a condiment is now on every plate, from Sriracha mayo to Sriracha wings to Sriracha tuna salad to Sriracha potato chips. It’s morphed into a ubiquitous flavoring, and it’s on too many dishes.”
— Brian Zenner, executive chef, Oak (Dallas, TX)
Doesn’t McDonald’s have a Sriracha-infested menu item now? The overuse and the intrusive ubiquitousness of it all is ruining anything to do with food. And, then there is this darling of an article that nails the worldwide backlash to the Sriracha and its rise to commercial/corporate stardom — Who Killed Sriracha?
Math Pedagogy has become Sriracha sauce now. Its everywhere. Every mathematical problem needs to be dressed up in some overreaching and unnecessary dressing of pedagogical buzzwords. Every mathematical problem/idea needs to be rescued by pedagogical assistance — to the point that I only really taste Sriracha!
Remember, there was a time that the world loved Sriracha. It had its purpose as a supporting actor in a specific cuisine, and then it overstayed its welcome and felt it could be used anytime and anywhere. Same way with mathematical pedagogy. A generation ago, it was critical for new ideas/approaches to teach/learn mathematics, and challenge Socratic lessons and over-reliance on textbooks. However, once the shift/paradigm was adopted, pedagogy started to overwhelm the mathematics. It somehow forgot that it is subset of mathematics. A critical subset, but a subset nonetheless.
And, I apologize if my tone is suggestive of the tail wagging the dog, but I have this gnawing fear that actual mathematics is being shaded into obscurity. Just last week, I came across a brilliant video by Keith Devlin, Developing Good Video Games for Good Mathematics Learning. The slide that got my attention the most was this one:
These bullet points of bad video game design in mathematics all stem from bad pedagogy. So, like everything in life, there is good and there is the bad. But, even the best pedagogy should know when to take its foot off the pedal, or at the very least, stop trying to come up with a name, idea, or label for everything that is being done in a math problem. Staying in the gaming world, look at the world of Minecraft. There are no instructions. Kids just get to play. Just plain ol’ play for the sake of play. An excellent article in the New York Times explaining this phenomenon of kids creating without instructions and without adult supervision came out a few years back.
Mathematics deserves a similar treatment, if at the very least part of the time. Kids deserve it. Mathematics deserves it. And again, pedagogical changes . were absolutely needed a generation ago — and they still are today! It’s just from my vista(whatever the hell that is worth) mathematics is getting talked about less and less. It is way more how how to cook, then what to cook. It all seems about squirting Sriracha on everything.
And YES, this article is just about my own gut feel about the situation. And, to be frank, it is the continuation of the pseudo-mathematics culture that Paul Lockhart warned us all about over 10 years ago. Mathematics can only be interesting if there is some educational commentary to always overlay it.
I guess nobody ever told Sriracha or math pedagogy that a little goes a long way.
The best case of the Sriracha syndrome has to be Number Talks. Again, when this phrase was first introduced, it was a needed and necessary component to help communicate and facilitate teaching number sense to elementary students. But, then it all went Sriracha.
It seems like there are a zillion books on Number Talks. The ironic thing is that while Number Talks are all the rage, there are actually no interesting numbers being discussed. I mean, if you are going to discuss numbers, shouldn’t you actually discuss numbers that matter, have zest, personalities, some kind of history? But, yes, I understand the what notion of Number Talks are supposed to represent, but because it has become such a ubiquitous phrase, there is the assumption that all Number Talks are treated the same and have equal currency.
Number Talks has become Sriracha.
When you buy a great cut of steak, it doesn’t need any seasoning beyond salt and pepper. Same thing for mathematics. If you give an interesting problem, it doesn’t need to be doused in the Sriracha-mayo of the pedagogical buzzwords — now, buzzkill —that runs wild on Twitter. But, if you have a piece of Round Steak that is 30% off because it expires today, then I wish you luck in salvaging that with whatever you think it needs to be doused/drenched with. Society calls this multiplying decimals. The last time I multiplied decimals by hand I think was when Fonzie jumped the shark…
The lingering effect that overuse of mathematical pedagogy has had is, ironically, the negative impact on mathematics. Just like chefs are displeased by the overuse of Sriracha — which is still technically tasty — mathematicians are irked that pedagogy has run interference on mathematics. So much so, that math conferences that used to be filled with — mathematics — are now severely tilted to how to cook with Sriracha workshops. As someone who has been going to math conferences for 20 years and has retired friends — who talk about a time when mathematics was queen and not a maid — I can attest that the culture of speaking/talking about mathematics is dying in the educational world.
I am not talking as math content expert. Ha! Far from it! I proudly possess probably less than 0.01% of the mathematical knowledge in the universe. It is precisely from that vantage point do I see the pressing need for the content of mathematics to stop being shaded into obscurity by pedagogy.
The overuse and over-value of Sriracha eventually killed this once-loved sauce. The same thing is happening with pedagogy. Once a needed breath of fresh air in how to change the anachronistic culture of the math classroom, it has elbowed its way into thinking it is the shining beacon of how to save mathematics.
No. The only thing that can save mathematics is to start including mathematics. What I mean by that is by giving math problems that stand on their own. That don’t need being dolled up in school language, and are intrinsically motivating on their own.
But, mathematics she don’t come around here like she used to. I wouldn’t either if you kept throwing packets of Sriracha at me. Sadly, we are almost at the point where we are just drinking Sriracha just to get our Sriracha fix.
Pass the ketchup…anything but Sriracha.
