[quote=captcha]I am surprised to read that someone who teaches high-level math at high school finds linear functions and matrix calculus exciting. I was expecting topology, predicate calculus or at least Euclidean geometry. After reading the article, my impression is that she was under-qualified to sub in her son’s school when he was 6 and she was just as under-qualified to teach high-level math at high school.[/quote]
You’re a little rough there, captcha. Isaac Newton wasn’t studying topology as a teenager. He did OK. The precise areas of mathematics you study are not as important as learning a goodly amount of important, challenging, and interesting mathematical ideas and techniques. (Full disclosure: I am a former mathematician.)
I liked her apparent enthusiasm for her subject and for her students, and her humility – she attributed her best teaching techniques to her students.
It is a shame that the best teachers don’t get paid a lot more than they do now, more in proportion to their impact on their students. And that the worst teachers, who waste their students’ precious potential, aren’t directed to other careers.
