Doing the Fox Trot with Cathy Seeley (current president, NCTM)

Barry Garelick Columnist EdNews.org

I have to say, Cathy Seeley, President of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) seems really nice. She has a great smile, has a pleasant Texas twang and is very energetic-the kind of person you'd like to have next to you on a long flight.

I have never talked with her, however. The only communication I've actually had is an email exchange in response to a question I asked about her views on Singapore Math. She also responded to a question I asked in an online chat sponsored by the NCTM website. Whether these responses were actually written by Cathy or the NCTM politburo, I can't say, but it's all I have to go on. I did write back to her and disclosed I was writing an article about math education, and that I would enjoy the opportunity to agree to disagree with her, but I never heard another word from her or her politburo.

While I don't agree with a word of what she says about math education, I really would like to talk with her. In a civil manner. While dancing with her at NCTM's annual meeting. I just took dancing lessons with my wife, and want to put that to use. Based on my emails with Cathy, plus what she has said on the NCTM website, here is how I think the conversation would go:

Me: May I have this dance?

Cathy: I'd be delighted. (Glances at my name tag). Why does your name sound so familiar?

Me: I wrote you some emails a while back. And a question in one of your online chats.

Cathy: No, I don't remember those.

Me: Maybe your politburo handled them.

Cathy: My what?

Me: Uh, never mind.

Cathy: Oh, wait! I remember! You wrote that article in Education Next where you slammed NCTM.

Me: That was me, yes.

Cathy: You don't like NCTM very much, do you?

Me: Oh Cathy, I think you're being a bit sensitive. I've traveled all this way to attend the annual meeting and I'm dancing with you, aren't I?

Cathy: (Smiling; silence)

Me: OK, you're right. I don't like NCTM.

Cathy: Fair enough. What can I say that might change your mind?

Me: For starters you can admit that Singapore Math meets the NCTM standards.

Cathy: Wow! Great question, Barry! Singapore's textbooks have some terrific math problems, but you really have to look beyond the textbook and more at how math is being taught.

Me: Don't tell me, let me guess: Are you saying "It's not the text, it's the teacher?" That's really great. You could save the taxpayers a lot of money by just giving the schools phone books and letting the teachers make up the curriculum.

Cathy: Let's talk about something we both agree on.

Me: This should be interesting.

Cathy: I think we both agree math is not taught well in the U.S. Right? Would you agree with that?

Me: So far so good. Cathy: Great! I think what you have in the U.S. is too much "Here's the rule, now do the problem"; too much teacher instruction. The teacher should refrain from stepping in too early to provide students with answers or tell them exactly what steps they should use.

Me: I think I get it. I was thinking that students actually learn things when you teach them what they need to know. But you're saying, first throw out the text books. Then instead of "Here's the rule, now do the problem" you say "Here's the problem, you figure out what the rules are". How am I doing?

Cathy: Ummm; I think I probably confused you. The point I want to make is that there's more than one way to teach.

Me: Ah! So sometimes "Here's the rule, now do the problem" is OK and Singapore Math meets the NCTM standards? Or are you still looking beyond the textbook?

Cathy: Wow. Good questions. In Singapore and other countries they teach math differently than we do here. They teach it according to the NCTM standards.

Me: Uh, I wouldn't say that. Singapore actually teaches content, and the content they teach actually matters.

Cathy: I don't know why you think NCTM standards don't emphasize content. The vision of Principles and Standards for School Mathematics paints a picture of the depth that we can achieve with all students.

Me: Really? Check out page 219.

Cathy: I didn't bring my copy with me. Do you have it memorized? Me: I had that page tattooed on my chest. NCTM thinks the rule of invert and multiply is too confusing to be mastered: "Some students forget which number is to be inverted" Apparently NCTM thinks dividing fractions is best done by drawing a picture and eyeballing the answer.

Cathy: I think I can help clear up your misunderstandings. If we limit students' mathematics experience to low- level, rote computation, they will certainly not be able to solve complex or higher- level problems on a test. Also, when a student has trouble with computation at the secondary level, we have found that spending more time on more computation does not often help.

Me: Oh, so that's why you advocate using calculators.

Cathy: Students' learning of computation does not suffer as a result of calculator use.

Me: It's always such a relief to have research that show these things, isn't it?

Cathy: Oh my; the song is ending.", I'd love to talk more but I do have to mingle. I really enjoyed talking with you.

Me: My pleasure.

Cathy: And you dance very well. Where did you learn to dance so well?

Me: From a content-based dance instructor.

Cathy: (While hurrying toward her politburo; looks over her shoulder and smiles) Wow!

Bio: Barry Garelick is an analyst with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. His experience in the area of math education includes a temporary assignment to a senator researching the issue. He also tutors high school students in mathematics. His undergraduate degree is in mathematics from the University of Michigan. He wrote an article on the state of U.S. math education in K-12 and how it got that way in the Spring 2005 edition of Education Next.

Orginally Published July 18, 2005

Tuesday

March 20th, 2007

Barry Garelick

Columnist EducationNews.org

Education News

Doing the Fox Trot with Cathy Seeley (current president, NCTM)

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