Myself, a young kid in the suburbs, going down south to mississippi every summer. That was my childhood experience. Host who happened to be africanamerican guest exactly. And i never saw that. So then i started writing because i was forced to take a graduate class in writing as part of my requirements. And my first writing teacher said you need to be a writer. Forget the scholar. [laughter] you need to be writing, its for important. And she turned me into a writer. She forced know keep writing over and over again. Because then i moved to new york pause thats what youre told to do, and i got another degree. Fine arts in writing for children at the new school. And really tried to learn the business and realized, oh, theres a lot of [inaudible] and theres a lot of rewriting x theres a lot of, you know, trying to figure out that this game is based on relationships too and how youre perceived. So then i really started writing a lot and launched a packaging company, because i realized that i wasnt going to be able to write the story, all the stories that i felt like students, my students i was also working as a librarian at the time needed to see, the ones they came into the library asking for. They wanted ten of kwames books. If i could have given them ten of them back to back just right there, given them twenty, they would have devoured them and wanted more and more. So i became a writer out of because i was told so, essentially. [laughter] and because i didnt see myself as a kid. Host do you enjoy it . Guest its painful, but i love it. It is painful. [laughter] host do you write every day . Guest i wish. I wish i did. My creative muscle doesnt work that way. Sometimes im im a week on, wek off host morning, evening . Guest usually the morning. Intensive writing a week on, then i take a week off to, you know, consume media. [laughter] and to revive. So i have to kind of go back and forth. Host whats your pattern, kwame be alexander . Guest i write i travel a lot, so i dont have the luxury that i have when i worked to write five hours a day for five years. So i write on airplanes and in hotels. But i spend a great deal of my time writing in my head. So im coming up with beginnings and middles and and ends and and plot twists and characters and titles in my head. And that can be i can do a couple weeks, couple months, and in some instances a year of that before i actually put pen to paper. Host do you enjoy the process . Guest i absolutely love it. I love my job. Host can your 7yearold daughter see herself in your work . Guest great question. Guest can she see herself in what . Host in your work. Guest sure. Sure. As can seventh graders at Granger Middle School in aurora, illinois. As can the kids at harlem village a academy. Is as can the kids in singapore that i visited this summer. The ideas that are experienced and the kids get it again. If theyre authentic, honest and real, the kids are cool with them. Its them, they get it. I think that the more exciting question for me is, or the more exciting answer is my daughter sees herself in her work. And so encouraging and empowering kids to not wait on someone else to define you for you, define yourself for yourself. Thats why the writing so important, because it allows you to find your voice x that empowers you. Host kwame alexander, author, founder of book in a day program. Danielle clayton, author and chief operating officer of we need diverse books. Thanks for being on booktv. Guest thank you for having me. Guest thank you. Next up on booktv, mathematics professor Andrew Hacker discusses his book, the math myth. 9 in it he questions whether or not advanced math should be required in school. [inaudible conversations] good evening. Welcome to the National Museum of mathematics and to a very special event. And i think were all delighted that the museum is putting on this event tonight and even more delighted that theyre doing it with the support of Mathematical Association of america which is helping out tonight. And in particular, loaned us james tanton tonight whom i will introduce in a minute. My name is john ewing, im the president of math for america, and i am a mathematician. [applause] this was not meant to be an aa meeting, by the way. [laughter] now, every professional mathematician knows that mathematicians and their subject have a certain reputation. A world famous mathematician is walking in the countryside one day when he comes upon a huge flock of sheep, and being a world famous mathematician, goes up to the shepherd and makes a proposition. 100 against one of your sheep that i can tell you instantly how many sheep are in the flock. The shepherd, knowing that there were an awful hot of sheep, says lot of sheep says, okay, ill try it. The mathematician looks around and says there are 937 sheep in this flock. The shepherd says, incredible. Thats absolutely incredible. The mathematician picks up an animal, throws it around his shoulders and begins to walk away. The shepherd runs after him. Wait, wait, he says. Double or nothing i can tell you exactly what your profession is. Now, the mathematician thinks this is unlikely so says, sure, go ahead. And the shepherd says, you are a world famous mathematician. Incredible, says the mathematician. How could you possibly know . Well, says the shepherd, put down my dog, and ill tell you. [laughter] this reputationing is not new. Reputation is not new. In 1914 william d. Lewis, the principal of William Penn High School in philadelphia, wrote about democratizing education. And he focused on High School Mathematics. My objection, he wrote, to the traditional requirements in mathematics is largely empirical. I have seen so many pupils driven out of school by work which could not have any practical advantage to them, and i have watched so many classes in guessing under the caption of algebra that i have come to believe that we ought to discriminate as carefully as possible between those pupils who really need the advanced mathematics and those who will find other work more profitable. 1914. What mathematics we teach in our schools, especially our high schools, has been debated for the past century. Often with an eye toward democratization and opportunities for students. Indeed, much longer than a century you may be unaware that arithmetic was not taught in Elementary School in the colonial period. Spelling, reading and writing constituted the curriculum at that time. Arithmetic was known as vulgar. Arithmetic was needed, and when it was needed, it was learned on the job. By the early 20th century, algebra and geometry were part of the curriculum in near every part of the country. But the Graduation Rate in 1900 was 8 . And as Graduation Rates declined, mathematics was then as it continues to be now the most difficult of subjects for many students. The debate culminated at the end of the 20th century with three provocative and quite exceptional essays written by Underwood Dudley, a mathematics professor at Depaul University with the titles why math, is mathematics necessary, and what is mathematics for. To the dismay of many mathematicians, woody argued there were many good reasons to teach mathematics, but utility wasnt one of them. Almost all jobs, he wrote, require no knowledge of algebra and geometry at all. He went on, were algebra necessary for 75 of all jobs, our algebra textbooks would be filled with on the job problems since examples would be so plentiful. This is clearly not the case. The math mystery, by Andrew Hacker which is the catalyst for tonights discussion is in many ways the child of this centurylong debate as well as woody dudleys essays. Although, i will say, the two no, sir reached very different conclusions two authors reached very different conclusions. Is High School Mathematics serving society . What mathematics should be taught . How should it be taught and why should it be taught . These are hard questions, and i believe that finding answers to hard questions is best done in open and public discussion. Thats why were here tonight. Our two speakers this evening are Andrew Hacker and james tanton. And youll be glad to know be ive reached the point where i introbe deuce them. [laughter] introduce them. Andrew hacker is a professor of Political Science at Queens College in the City University of new york where, in addition to teaching Political Science, he has taught experimental course, an experimental course in mathematics literacy. He was an undergraduate at Amherst College and received his ph. D. From princeton university. He taught at cornell from 1955 until the early 1970s, and since then he has been on the faculty of Queens College. He is the author of ten books, and a sample of the titles suggests their reach. Two nations black and white, separate, hostile and unequal. Mismatch the growing gulf between women and men. Higher education i have to ask the question there. How colleges are wasting our money and failing our kids. And what we can do about it. In 19 in 2012 he published an oped in the New York Times entitled is algebra necessary which led to his most recent book, the math myth and other s. T. E. M. Delusions. Setting the stage for tonights discussion. Whether or not you agree with the substance of these books, i am sure you will all agree that the titles are, every one of them, exceedingly clever. [laughter] james tanton grew up in adelaide, australia, and when he speaks tonight, you may detect that he is not a native of new york. He received his undergraduate degree in mathematics at Adelaide University and came to the u. S. In 1988 where he received his ph. D. In mathematics also from princeton university. After teaching at st. Marys college in maryland, an exceptional liberal arts college, i might add, he followed his wife to boston where he spoon turned his soon turned his attention to the general state of k12 mathematics. Eventually, he found himself at a private school in southboro, st. Marks, where he founded the st. Marks institute of mathematics. Then on to washington, d. C. Where he served as visiting mathematician and hen the mathematician in residence. James consults with schools all across the globe on the teaching of middle school and High School Mathematics. He is also the author of a number of books solve this, mathematic activities for students and club. And also the author of two worldless puzzle books. Without words and more without words, both of which, im told, are being presently translated into serbian. [laughter] they are. I had offered to complete the translation for him tonight, but james is also part of the global math project with the goal of initiating a fundamental be change in the way we perceive and enjoy mathematics. Tonights presentation will be divided into six segments, two 15minute presentations by each of our speakers to lay out the case, two 8minute responses from each, and then questions and answers from the audience. Well, actually, the questions are from the audience, and presumably the answers are from the speakers. [laughter] followed by a short time for people to come up and talk individually with the speakers tonight. My job tonight is to keep us on schedule, and i will do so with ruthless resolve here. So i would like professor hacker to begin tonights presentation. [applause] thank you, john. And it is a pleasure to be here. I may be the only nonmathematician in the house, but thats the reason im here. I will say at this point it is not my intention, any of you who are math teachers, to put you out of business. I think yours is a grand and glorious calling. There are a total, at last count because im a statistician, 217,584 teachers of mathematics in this country. Its a sturdy profession. I dont think it has anything to fear from me. Now, im a political scientist. And the chief job of political scientists is to analyze policy. Particularly governmental policy. And even more particularly, governmental policies which require everyone to do a certain thing. Very simply, if youre going to drive a car, you have to pass a test. The government says that. Youre going to have a child hi, back there the child has to be vaccinated. We understand that. What interested me, therefore, as a political scientist is an effect of governmental policy that we have which is that every single young person in this country will be required, required to take a full sequence of mathematics. Starting with algebra, geometry, precalculus and, for many, the ideal is to have everybody study calculus. And my simple reason for being here and simple reason for writing my book can be summed up in one word. I understand we have some visual aids here. All right . I only learned this last minute, so i brought one of my own. May i put it down. [laughter] thank you. And you may keep that up while im talking. Okay. [laughter] we currently have another statistic, four million 16yearolds, and the goal is to have every single one of them enrolled in algebra ii. We have coming up the common core, and the common core is, by the way, the common core is for everybody. They say career or and collegeready, but everybody has to pass the common core tests, and they are tests which are going to be conducted nationally. And algebra ii is going to be there. Well, were going to be in for some problems. We already have some. The math requirement, the math hurdle, if you like, takes a tremendous toll every year. We rank in the United States very low among developed countries, about 20 of the 28, in the number of our young people who finish high school. Yes. Our High School Dropout rate is 20 . One out of every five young people or older people in the street has failed to finish high school. The major academic reason for that is failure, failing a math class. I know there are other reasons, prison, pregnancy, but the academic reason is. We dont keep exact figures on, but joe boller whose work you may know has concluded that a majority of students eventually fail one or another math course. Now, is this because theyre indolent . Because theyre stupid . Be or is it because or is it because were asking something of everyone that we really shouldnt be requiring universally . One out of five dont graduate from high school. Of those who graduate from high school and go on to college, 43 do not graduate. Its actually close to 45 . Yes. This is one of highest College Dropout rates in the advanced world. We have more colleges per capita, but we have fewer people finishing college. Why . Because colleges mindlessly require mathematics of everybody even if youre going to major in poetry, modern dance, interior design. You still have to pass an algebra test to get onboard. Now, we have a fantastic talent loss here. Were shooting ourselves in the foot. People who would be really very skilled, talented in all sorts of fields are not being allowed to proceed or even at the junior college. Somebody who wants an associates degree, certificate in cosmetology. You know, in industrial design. No be, not industrial design, lets say commercial art, you know . Even they have to pass a math test. And as a result are, our attrition rate at Community College is just savage. Something else too. We hear reports, act came out with a report just about a year or so ago saying 43 of people taking act thats the college test are not college ready. Can you say, goodness . 43 taking act, the college test, are not collegeready . You know why . Because collegeready requires advanced mathematics for everybody. And as a result, some very Good Students who might be my College Class wont be there because of this requirement. Now, my book is called the math myth. And, in fact, more and more i studied what has happened here, the more i discovered that people who are entrenched im trying to be kind here [laughter] entrench inside a certain profession, occupation, vocation will literally say anything to defend the status quo from which which they benefit. This can be true of police officers, it can be true of anything. And i discovered so much of what were being told about math is sheer myth. For example, theres the 62 figure. You have something called the american diploma project. Couple of years ago, they came out and said within a decade from now 62 of all occupations will need algebra. Well, as woody, you know, Underwood Dudley said years ago this is certainly a myth. At most, 5 of occupations need algebra or above. And i respect those. In the course of writing my book, i went down to marietta, georgia, where i interviewed aeronautical engineers at lockheed, and i was just blown away by the way they use calculus to study the ice on wings. Fantastic things i learned about ice. Ice in mall ya is different from ice in the andes, i wont go on. But you certainly need mathematics. And wall street, they use calculus all the time to study risks, payoffs and the rest. But not be 62 . At best, 5 . Which is the question if were only going to talk in occupational terms, why the other 95 have to take it. I dont want to get too much into the question of the story, it is a story that the s. T. E. M. Story. We all know what s. T. E. M. Means, that theres a shortage of people with s. T. E. M. Qualifications. In fact, of people who have degrees in s. T. E. M. Subjects, s, t, e, m, less than half, only slightly more than a third, are working in s. T. E. M. Occupations. We actually have an oversupply of people with s. T. E. M. Qualifications. Were told we better watch out in a global competition because korea, china, singapore, hong kong are far ahead of us in mathematics. Its true. Their students score in the stratosphere on the International Math tests. Ill say this to you they score high because they work 23 hours a day. You know, the biggest illness among young people in korea, the pediatricians are quite ardent on this, is sleep deprivation. They work 23 hours a day if, and i want to say this in the best way, if the International Competitions were on chess or crossword puzzles, the chinese and the koreans would score up there too. So the big challenge is not more math for us, but getting our kids to work 23 hours, and i dont wouldnt advise that. Theres a whole question of whether math sharpens our minds. I agree that studying math and really doing well at it sharpens your mind for dealing with mathematics. Thats for sure. There is no evidence whatever that mastering mathematics makes you agile, adept, excel in other fields. Theres none whatever. I did a short test of my own at Queens College because i couldnt find any evidence. I took the math scores of our incoming freshmen, i took all the freshmen who took an introductory history course. I plotted the math scores, you know, high, low, versus the history scores. History uses reason, weighing evidence. Guess what in the correlation was zero. It could be high in math, bomb out in history, vice very or saw. Math does not help you in other fields. And thats just another myth. Now, there is certainly and im not sure i want to call this a myth. There is the view, for example, keith devlin whos a mathematician i really respect. I keep his book, life by the numbers, at my bedside. Its one of the best books ive read on showing a layperson what mathematics really is. And he closes the book, he believes that mathematics is one of the greatest creations of the human mind, perhaps each the greatest even the greatest. Well, hey, ill go along with that. I simply asked, though, by way, is mathematics something we created, or is it something that we discovered . Could it be that mathematics is out there created by nature, that she created the calculus . We, courtesy of isaac newton, had to discover it. Its like pi, for example. We didnt create pi, but we had to find it and show how its used. But in all events, what im saying is i would really love for everybody to appreciate mathematics, its glories, its goals. But this isnt being done by making people slug through polygnome yalls year after year. I would love to have math teachers take off time and treat mathematics as a liberal arts could know the beauty and the poetry in mathematics. Theres also the view that mathematics is objective which is to say theres one right answer, you dont have to worry about opinions, subjectivity, you know, bias, things like that. Well, this may well be true. But theres Something Else going on. Mathematics has builtin biases of its own. Not so much the subject, but way we assess it and evaluate it. One thing we know, i have a chapter in the book called gender gaps in mathematics. Girls and young women actually get higher grades in math courses than the guys do. They do. We have enough studies across the board to show that a act and sat both know that. The girls get higher grades. Ah. But when it comes to the tests, act, is sa, the and psat and in time its going to be common core, the men are always ahead. I would really ask you as mathematicians to find some way of having tests because were going to continue to test people that give the girls and the young women a chance to show what they really know. For the last half century, girls have been 30 points behind boys on the sat. And by the way, that has consequences. One consequence is the National Merit scholarships. I went into this. The National Merit scholarships, you know what they are. They do not give a gender breakdown of their winners. They refuse to do it. They hide that information. You know why . Because 53 , oh, or im a numbers person, 53 of the people who enter the National Merit competition are girls, but boys end up getting 53 of the awards. Why . Because they score 30 points higher well, the psat grading system, than the girls do on these tests. The same thing is going to happen with the common core. And this is one reason why girls find it harder to get boo Ivy League Schools into Ivy League Schools. Because Ivy League Schools require 700 before we open your application on mathematics, both math and verbal. 700. Twothirds of those 700 and above are boys. So as a result, stanford be, yale, for example, are majority men. Why . Because of the math barrier. Now, girls are doing okay in your classes, but please, i need some advice. The country does on how to gear tests so they indicate what they know. Now, math, of course, were told requires do i have 30 seconds more . Six, but ill give you 30. [laughter] okay. Okay. I think my last comment here is do i propose to abolish algebra . No, of course not. But i do want to see other options be alternatives. Instead of the full sequence for everybody, at tenth grade we can work this out. Begin to offer options like, im afraid im biased here, what i teach. I teach a class at my cleej in the math department, oh, yes, called numeracy 101 which is about citizen statistics. You know, not highpowered academics. Citizen statistics. How to read a corporate report. How to look at the federal budget. It doesnt require any math. All it requires is adult arithmetic, and i dont think we have to be ashamed of that at all. Thank you. [applause] and now james tanton. All right. Well, thank you for hosting this evening. This is a real honor and a real treat for the nation, and thank you, dr. Hacker, for raising this interest. This is a really important conversation to have, a national concern. Very much appreciate you bringing it to the world. Because it really is absolutely vital that we really reconsider and reassess the state of math education in our nations next generation [inaudible] and you pointed out in your book [inaudible] expand that good even further. And thank you for coming along today and hopefully viewing a video afterwards. For your interest in this topic and for your work to to understand current matter ands current concerns. And its truly wonderful that we adults, we parents are personally empowered to check facts, double check truth for ourselves and personally assess the validity of claims made that come away in the media, internet and general conversation. And that is we are brave enough to ask how do we know what we know and not succumb to just general impressions and general commentary alone . Now, i actually very much enjoyed reading dr. Hackers book, and i came away with an interpretation that many might find somewhat surprising. I think dr. Hacker is actually arguing strongly, very strongly, for the common core state standards in mathematics. He has beautifully kept his sense of deep concerns and Public Perceptions that a date back before the conception of the common core or and also with mighty strong warnings about how not to implement the common core state standards. Like me, dr. Hacker doesnt want his implementation to fall into old traps. Resorting to heavyhanded speed testing putting mechanistic [inaudible] above number facility and above all letting the human discussion experience of mathematics be pushed to the side. I couldnt agree more that these are real concerns. And many proponents of the common core i know feel same way. So let me just try putting some things up on the screen. I just, im basing my discussion on the math myth which it really was a real pleasure to read, so thank you. I just brought some beautiful comments about the joy of mathematics here. And id like to actually just share my personal philosophy about teaching mathematics. Forgive me, ill need my glasses. Im going to stop reading things soon. I completely agree with dr. Hacker when he proposed in chapter one that we strongly focus on a path mindset when teaching mathematics. He phrases philosophy, art,ing history, the human story of mathematics as well as content. But actually the content at the High School Level can be argued as somewhat secondary. I have never used the quadratic formula in my personal life. I dont think ive even used it in my research life. But learning that formula wasnt the point, it was the story of quadratics. It was the story. I know, from that story i know i can knock my way through almost every problem to do with that project. And i love the human story of how mankind battled over millennia to discover the surprising link between geometry and the subject, the success of literally completing the square. And while teaching mathematics as a High School Teacher, i loved the mathematical stories one can portray of the algebra and quadratics of being a story of symmetry, the beauty and power of problem solving. Theres so much beauty and richness right there this that summit. The quadratic formula itself is somewhat irrelevant and secondary. To me, the ultimate goal of education is to help people see and consider and practice taking the road the higher good, how to develop informed views, how to consider and probe be alternative views, how to analyze what you know what you think you know and to be curious. And also to be aware of great human achievements of mankind. The works of shakespeare, greek drama and the revelation of completing the square. High school is really not about content. Every piece of High School Math, in fact be, almost every piece of every topic can be whittled completely way if youre only looking for the utilitarian use of it. When was last time you had to compose a haiku in everyday life . The content is really not so much the point,st all about teaching a state of being and accomplish thinking. And i think math is particularly good at teaching problem solving and basic life skills, thinking through challenges. Now, i make no claim that the schools and math are necessarily transferable. How could we possibly prove that for math or any subject . But math certainly offers one of many ranges of human thinking as a worthy piece to have in ones general thinking repertory. I think math good at teaching patience and problem solving and developing selfconfidence for relying on your wits and muddling your way through challenges [inaudible] dr. Hacker and i each believe in the common core, so we are deeply concerned about possible implementation in particular with the deleterious effects of [inaudible] that doesnt seem to ever go away in Mathematics Education. Lets teach algebra ii as a human experience, a human story with context and joy. It really can be a grand service to our next generation. Now, lets be absolutely clear what the common core actually is. So ive gone through what is the common core. Okay, so its a list of two standards, a list of content standards. Theyre outlining actually pieces of mathematics that seems to make sense as a storyline for k12 and a storyline [inaudible] theres actually nothing new in the common core state standards themselves contents of mathematics. Its just people have thought very deeply whats a storyline that makes sense, and i say yea to that. However, the common core goes further. It also says we must attend to thinking. And i had to say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. This is phenomenal. This is a major achievement of the common core. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. Dont just, you know, know the abstract [inaudible] of algebra. Step back and understand what it means in terms of number sense and so forth. Model real world problems, even model mathematics itself when mathematics. Use appropriate tools. Dont just use calculators. Really think about what tools are hes and appropriate in mathematics. I mean, you cant argue against this. Its standard precision. Now, this one misleads people. It sounds like, okay, were going to compute things with 17 decimal places. No. They mean precision of language. Look for and make use of structure. If you see an equation, can you step back from it and say maybe [inaudible] the structured equation is informing about a piece of mathematics. And look for an express regular lairty, repeated reasoning. That is, rather than do the same type of calculation over and over again, can you notice that if you just take one ten back, they all follow the same structure and just solve one general problem instead . Wed argue thats the story of algebra right there. Lets be very clear, many people think the common core state standards is hundreds and hundreds of standards or. You know, when i said that we could each be personally responsible for our understanding of matters, you can download the common core state standards. Just google common core state standards, and then you hit control f or whatever to find keywords. I actually encountered 436 state standards. I was generous. I counted 436 of these things. 187 through grades k8, 149 for school, and 30 of those k920 percent of them are optional. So 436 standards. The biggest point to make is its not a curriculum. And here is the trouble. This is a real danger. S it is very easy to confuse states implementation of the common core state cards as the state standards. You can find, i agree, really troubling examples out there in text twooks. Well, that is that particular states incorporation. There are no lesson plans. There are no uniform tests and parallel scoring systems. There is no [inaudible] for the nation. And people feel like standards themselves are questions for students. Forgive me, im just going to use examples from the book. Here are twostate standards. Use the publics [inaudible] how c is expressed a different way and give meaning to it. That standard number 5ifb terrible number, dont know what it means [inaudible] okay. Theyre not questions. Theyre the standards. By the way, this point an optional standard. The plus sign means its optional. Might not put it on the curriculum. Two things to know here, a good number of these standards are actually optional and, secondly, theyre not written for student consumption. Theyre written for experts, for the teachers, for curriculum drivers. Doesnt mean im going to call it that, maybe it just means i want to the use that language. Thats the educators choice. The common core state standards are speaking to the academics of the world. Dr. Hacker was beautiful, he came out with a lot of words out this about common core state standards, and forgive me for pulling up some of these, and i feel like im being a bit rude here, but i popped on two in particular. Forgive me, you did pull out a lot of words as being bandied about in the common core state standards. I download the document, i check is [inaudible] is in there . I didnt know what it was. I had to ask my friends. This ones a bit funny, exequation. The word [inaudible] that scary word is there. Its in one optional standard. One. A lot of people are scared of the word algorithm. And theres a claim that the common core teaching a lot of strange algorithms that arer relevant to everyday life. Yes, its true, the word algorithm appears five times in the common core standards. Grades 36, done. All of base ten. So these misconceptions, we can check them for ourselves. Are they really part of the common core or peoples interpretation of the common core . Its a very, very scary little game what cans beginning on. Ill be fair, there are actually some terms that people bandy about that are in the common core. For example, elliptical equations, as a mathematician i know thats not in the common core. Thats a very big, highpowered research topic, but i think it means the word ellipse, and the word ellipse doesnt appear in one standard. And, yes, theyre really asking scary words, for example, inverse functions, yes, they are in the common core. It appears five times. Interesting. So lets be very clear what the common core is. Not a curriculum, there are no tests, its peoples interpretation that might hit that way. Another thing being lapty asked about, and bandied about, and as i said, ive seen this in several places. Young did dont understand the difference between correlation and causation. Do you know what . I applaud the common core. They caught this one. Its an actual standard. Please distinguish. Actually attend to it. [laughter] three minutes. Proof. This is a scary one, because weve all had the experience, i believe, in our education days of these twocolumn proofs in geometry. Not in the common core. Mathematicians do not do math that way. Ill have to check the facts, but i bet theyre a pedagogical device just to help students analyze their thinking. Let be honest here. This one comes up in trigonometry a lot. Fine, just do what is in context. Have a thinking person doing mathematics. And ill finish off with the idea of literacy, it is so in the common core. So, talked about, we need skills in a math curriculum. Again, please, check the times. That quote was 2003. Many years before the common core, and look what we do . And number two, we hadnt kids to think quantitatively. One course, i went through the examples. Did i fine illustrative math . Trying to fight samples related to each core topic . Dealing with the very issues . Yes. I can give you a list of all the examples, special reasoning, approximation, playing we pi, pi is a big one. I believe my time is up. Ill stop there thank you. [applause] professor hacker. Okay. I just have been taking some notes, and first of all, not an expert on common core, and i prefer not to be. I have read all week common cores standards, i went through them, i think at a certain point i counted Something Like 1764 individual standards. I tell you what. Going to be given next year, nationwide. 40plus states. And theyre going to be uniform, or at least parallel tests. Theyre being done by states smart balance . Or some tests, some states have their own tests. The whole point of the common core was that before the common core, each state did it separately, and guess what . In mississippi, 90 of the people, high school seniors, were passing in math in mississippi, and in minnesota, only 74 were. Why . Because each state had its own test. Common core is going to have a test, and you have i shouldnt say those of us who are math teachers will have to teach to the test. Sorry. You have to. Because the test results im not talking about evaluating teachers in terms of salary or closing schools. Im saying that states themselves will be evaluated on their common core results, much as pizza does for countries today. So doesnt matter whether we call standards oar curriculum. Just look at what is on the test your students are going to have to go through, hour after hour. Okay. And the failure rate is going to be disastrous. Why . Because at College Level, s. A. T. Level for the common core, second year algebra. Second year algebra for and all one or two things. New york and kentucky have already had some pilot common coretype tested. Twothirds failed the math in those two tests. Next time around when we started doing the scoring system, reform it. We dont renorm and it we dont have twothirds failing. The legislators constant city tunes its going to be white kids from the suburbs who fail, not just kids in the back roads of the rural counties. Oh, no. The question is why . Why are we putting ourselves through this sadistic torture when we dont have to. Now,s to math help you problem solving . Well, why not. With problemsolving, yes, the problemsolving in mathematics. Ill give you a problem i have had to deal with five times myself specifically. Have been a juror in five criminal cases. I dont know why they choose me. Well, my kind face in each of those trials, five criminal two murders, the prosecution said we will prove, prove, beyond a reasonable doubt the defendant did it. We had to use our minds to solve the problem. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt are not, i assure you my mathematicians on my jury were no bert than at the bicycle messenger. Remember jose pointing something out and i said to him, gee issue never thought of looking at it that way, and jose had never been in a math class. And by the way, do you know that Paul Wolfowitz is he gone he was rumsfelds number two in the defense department. More than any other Single Person gave us the iraq war. I knew him because i knew him at cornell. He was a math major. His father was a math professor. The finest mathematical minds we had. Razor sharp mind said when we go into baghdad, everybody will cheer us in the sheets and will adopt democracy tomorrow. Dont even make this point for Political Sciences but mathematics should. The beauty of mathematics. Here when james talked about math mat ticks a tear rolled from my eye because truth is truth. When we teach the merchant oven is in or teach jane austins novels theres a beauty to convey, and my challenge to Mathematics Teachers and professors, please, use the beauty in mathematics. Can you convey that to your students . You have a captive audience. They cant leave. You have a chance to do it. And yet, the success rate isnt that good. Of the bachelors degrees awarded last year, only one percent was a math major. Something is happening there. Maybe its because of the way you have to teach in the textbooks, you cant take time off and show the sheer beauty of pi. Well, give it a try. Just one last thing. I realize were not vocational teachers. Im a liberal arts teacher. I teach in a liberal arts college. Im not training people to be lawyers and things like that, but were rally being sold a bill of goods how we have to train people for stem, stem, stem. Get them to major in the stems fields. So let me put something up. Stem, stem, stem, and even starbucks, they just look behind the counter. Look at the coffee machines. Thats hightech. But you know . Starbucks is all over china and russia, too. You know what is sold around the world . Not the technology. Sure. But the magic of those words. Who saw that google we know what google is. But who thought of putting google out there . Apple, twitter out there . You dont have to major in math. You dont have to be an engineer, what we do need, okay, are more people who are poets. Those are poetic words. But theyre not even going to get to college because were going to stumble over algebra. So the future of the country, stem maybe, but justice, no. New words like that. When you think of the fifth one to put down there, resound across the globe, i say more power to you. [applause] thank you. Now james. Yes, the beauty of math. The beauty in general. Even in Teaching High School algebra ii. We are so honest this culture of testing, all about getting answers to questions. What questions . And the speed. That is in itself seems somewhat joyless and would not want to participate. As a High School Teacher ill become a radical High School Teacher. Used to give quizzes if a all the answers supplied. And then a big blank space. Tell my kids, we should have more of that. You have a mock to a month to do this, hand it to me over and over again until your 100 . Took you a month to figure it out . Great. A week . No worries. You figured it all. Its a cultural shift we need. Thats a tough one if dont this algebra ii is too high a barrier. The issue is how we teach the subject. Do we teach with joy and wonder . So, math is somewhere lets think of things. Trigonometry is scary, too scary. Think about a human story. Stuff like sitting on horizons, contemplating what im doing you. Might notice the sun rises in the east. Goes overhead and then sets in the west, and comes back again. Something like that. Very crude. Its not a perfect circle but they should say its a circle, and a natural human question would be, how high is the sun . No idea how high it is itch cant get on top of the sun and put a rope down and measure. The only thing i can measure is the angle i can look up out. The angle of elevation. All right. The story of tragic knock tri. Trigonometry. Indian mathematicians call this the yaw of an angle. Then that took off in the middle east, and it was translated from this into the arabic. In arabic. And then math took off in western europe and the translated the math from arabic into latin. They came up with code, why did the we use the litin word for cove. The companion sign. Next question, like this. Okay, 30 degrees. One great big unit. How high is that . Okay. Thats a problem. Eventually someone will have an epiphany. Looks like its a triangle. Ah, which case what must this length be . Half a try angle. Must be half. So i have my kid working just like this. This is joyous teaching. This is algebra ii, i believe actually within reach of everyone, and i think because of the use of this, you can measure heights of trees. One experience everyone has, i think algebra ii is in reach of our nation. Were dutybound to share it with the world. We clutter the curriculum. Lets bring the human story. 3 37. Its mathematics helpful with truth. This scarce scares me. Proof does come up in jury cases and mathematical approve and is scares everybody. I think it was written about in a book. Imagine that the town where 90 of the are blue and the temperatures are purple, and a crime occurs and the eye witness says it was blue. You have an eye witness in a town, out of 100 cabs, 90 will be blue and ten will be purple. All right. So if says i saw a purple cab go away, test the eye witness and im being shown color of blue and purple at random she was able to identify the correct color 80 of the time. So 80 of the time a pretty good witness. So among these 90 blue taxicabs she would be create 80 of the time. 18 cabs, shell say 18 of these are actually purple and theyre really blue, and the rest 72 . Really are blue. One will say two of them are mistakenly blue and eight of them all right, this witness says she definitely saw a blue cab go away. She is 80 reliable on these eye witness tests. What are the chances she is actually . Well, she said blue, at least two cases, and the two cases 34 cases. I want to make it purple. Say she said purple. Eight out of 26 times she was actually correct, it really was purple. An increasing chance she is among the eight. Ought out of 26, sounds about 30 to me. Only 30 reliable. And i believe this sort of thinking does happen in court cases every now and then, and theres a history of this not follow this. Get the numbers right. That is, i think, good example that actually okay, 100 of the math we teach is used by somebody, and no one individual probably uses it probably ignores 9. 5 of it. However, i cannot say which 99 i should throw out of the curriculum. Maybe grade eight. Thats a hard question. Think we could reach algebra ii as a rome challenge if we actually teach it with truth, beauty, context, humanism and joy. Exploding dots. It really is seeing based. Sitting back and finding a joyful picture, and suddenly a whole portal of won doctor open won doctor wonder opens up. Can they talk about them . Thank you. [applause] thank you both. Now its time for questions. So, well get set up for questions there has to be somebody that will run the mic around. Well turn off the lapel mics. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] before we begin, let me Say Something that is slightly unusual here. Were going to spend about 15 minutes or so with questions from the audience, and then when were done, with the way, youll have a chance to come up and ask individual questions of the speakers. I cant help myself here. I have to make an observation, and the observation is that all three of us here are really in some sense not james has been a teacher but were not presently teachers in schools. Were in some sense university people. Or universitylike people. And this is what happens all the time. Think about it. Were talking about k12 education here, about mathematics mathematics and the role in k12 in high schools and also in middle schools and Elementary Schools. Can you imagine having a meeting in which we discuss some medical practice and there wasnt a practicing doctor anywhere in sight . Can you imagine ever doing that . The fact were three people, all of us, who are not teachers, says an awful lot about the state of education in this country, and so i would like to say that i will take questions from the audience but i would prefer to take questions from k12 teachers in the audience, if you dont mind. So, at least in the beginning id like to hear from k12 teachers. All right. I will bring the microphone and give it a second. If you could stand up. Okay, a teach sixth and eighth grade math. [inaudible] sure. What do you want . My question is dealing with that. What do you suggest . I think you have both really great points, but what do we do . Were stuck in the middle. Like, what do you do you have suggestions . Thats where we are right now. I think simply i know your thought because youre your school, the state lays down what you have to teach. Something im freed from the College Level but i understand and appreciate what you have to do. Would simply say, write your congressman. This is a political question. This is not just an education question. And make your voice heard on this. Say, look, i want more freedom to teach the beauty of mathematics rather than the tenth or eighth standard youre requiring of me. You have to make your voice herder heard. Block to a union . I hope theyll take that up, too. My biggest Culture Shock going from the university to High School Teacher is how okay. I get excited and i seem to have an accent. My biggest Culture Shock from the University World to High School Teaching is how frenetic and mentally busy a world that was and all professions should be reflecting on teaching, the high school offer no chance to reflect on teaching. It was shocking to me and disturbing. Was really interested in the challenge of how to find the wiggle room nonetheless, get my kids to pass the test. I do admit that i was in the Public School in a private school world, which is exempt from the state standards and the state tests at the time so not cullly qualified to teach in the Public School world. But i had the culture loud and clear. My algebra ii experience with my kids, my kids need to know the formula, do them in a row, so i taught the square and got my kid drawing little boxes mitchell colleagues had no idea what these boxes were, and they answered the questions. Its the wiggle room and its very hard and exhausting and you feel like youre alone so do write your congressman and blog and tweet about it. The power of social media. A very Strong Movement in this very room of people that really are working to bring joy to math teaching. Theres room for it. It should have more room. I want to speak about teaching that i did in east harlem here in new york city, in Elementary School. I taught problemsolving. How to think mathematically, and in the weeks before the test, i said to the in two weeks before the test i said to the teacher you know how to teach them how to bubble in and do a test. So i want to know what you mean about teaching for the test . To me, teaching mathematics is teaching for the test, and the better you teach mathematics, the better the students can handle whatever is thrown at them, they might not have seen before. So, were talking about something that i need you to explain because to me its teaching mathematics. Mr. Hackett. Okay, just very briefly. What do i mean by teaching to the test . Heres my best example. Princeton review, you good to them, you pay, and they teach you how to beat the test. In fact, some of the people i talked with, coaches, say, i can teach you to get 400. I know its not great but 400 on the s. A. T. Without knowing even a thing about mathematics. It could be a test in bulgarra. They teach you how to beat the test. We are professionals. Were teachers. We love learning. My own view is i happen to be with the far right wing on this. I am against the common core. Id rather heave a got rid of totally and leave it to you in the classroom. Youre a professional. Teach what you think should be taught, you think is important. By the way, if in one School Different people are teaching Different Things in math classes, fine. Let a thousand flowers bloom there isnt one thing everybody has to know. Teaching to the test. Thats a big scary one. The easy way to interpret that, okay, heres the formula to memorize, heres a song to help you memorize and it that solves the problem. Its joyless. And it kind of is what it expected by many parts of our culture. Math mat ticks is about compute additions and getting the answer at speed. Teach my kids to think and i felt confident they were passing the test. But the knew their colleagues were doing Different Things and got nervous about it. A lot of work needs to be done, and working with parents is very carey. I have an accent that seems to develop some respect so i can talk to parents and sound like i knew what i was talking about. The ph. D helped a lot. However, i admit that was in my favor with discussing this with parents. They trusted me, but that trust is hard to attain, i agree. Hi. Im a high school student. Ive taken the common core, and i just now its a real adjustment period while we transition to the common core, and so i guess results will be shaky. I think you said that only twothirds of students have passed it in new york or have filed so it far. One third. Was wondering over time do you think as more kids have taken it, and as teachers have had more time to learn how to prep kids to take it, results will improve, and generally it will be more accepted . The common core over time . By the way, ill just say theres a misconception here. Being proficient, the test for Different Levels and the misconception is that in order to pass the test you have to be proficient or advanced, and thats not at all what is meant here. So theres basic, proficient, advanced, and the figures you hear about only onethird passing are not correct figures. Thats a misinterpretation of the levels. Now let somebody answer. By the way, please, its a misinterpretation. No, they havent failed. Theyre just unproficient. The word proficient does not mean what you think in english. Labels, labels. Lets be very clear. Are you speaking about engage new york . New yorks interpretation of the common core state standards . Youre studying in new york . Okay. So, this is my point earlier on. I deeply worry about implementation of state interpretation of the common core, and i know that the engage new york in particular did something that was very disturbing to me. They said, okay, implement this in 20 5 start with grade ten so every student has bon how to the k through 9 cultural experience, and they havent. So, i think its if had to make a prediction, going to be a tough challenge to stay in new york if thats the cultural introduction to this. We were told i was adviser on the curriculum and was very nervous, like the 2020 students have been through it five years. Dont write the students have not been through it at all. If we give it a chance i believe theres good hope for it. Testing is always the issue. I worry about the state of testing. Its going to doom anything. But thats trying to be lets try to be clever on the test. Theyre asking why or an algebra problem, draw a picture how to solve it, not the actual equation. So theyre trying to had good success with that. Im asking a question on behalf of somebody online, daniel finkle. He asks, lets suppose that Andrew Hackers proposal, which is to abolish standards thats the summary of the proposal is executed. What might be the consequences . The consequences of abolishing standards. First of all, whats going to happen with the common core . One its all currently, almost half our students dont go on after college. After high school. They dont go further. They try college and dont finish. Only a third of americans finish college. Now, what are we going to do for this nonacademic twothirds . Were going to have the common core standards, college and career ready, segwayed into one thing, and were going make them go to the triangle. My answer is getting rid of it would have much more freedom in tailoring education for various levels of students, and i dont mean dumb verse smart. Not everybody is going to cal tech. There will be people who will be ups drivers. Its an honorable drive. Why demand the that the question was abolishing the standards. I cant help it. The triples are not in the common core. It was an example of one standard. Personally believe theyre a beautiful story line. Like the clay tablets from 3,000 years ago, listing curious question. Why . Somebody something delightful. Look at the multiplication tables. You generate triples in the basic multiplication table. Theres a great mystery to play with. The triangle, standards north part of it. If we let go of the standards, well, we let go. I mean, we have some commonality that kids should good through grade eight math mat mathematics i dont know where that line is. My argument is i have no trouble with the bulk or the content of what is deemed algebra ii if its taught in a joyous way, and i believe it can be and by and large isnt. I would say maybe general standards id be scared to get rid of all of them personally. One more question. Hi. I am a High School Math teacher in the south bronx, and my biggest concern with the idea of not making higher level math mandatory is theres already an achievement gap in this country, and my students are already having lots of doors shut on them, and i think by saying, okay, only those who can learn math are going to be the ones to learn it, that achievement gap witness goal larger me. Question is if we get rid of the standards are we going to prevent students who are alreadied a a disadvantage from continuing to get doored closed on them . [applause] i really glad that question was asked because it is a basic american question. Back in some decaying trailer park in rural arkansas, or somewhere i wont say in the south bronx but lets say south brooklyn. Somewhere there is a kid being brought up in a really grungy home. Things like that happen. Who has the makings of being an astrophysicist. Yes, there is such a child. The question is, how do we discover that child . Do we do it by making everybody 100 , including the poets and including the dancers, make everybody go through a full mathematic sequence until we find that one person in the trailer park who should be encouraged . Somehow you better work out the probabilities for this. The price were paying by make 1 00 do something so that one fraction of one percent will be discovered, maybe theres a better way to discover in the trailer park that kid, maybe at the age of five, who has a certain life to them, a certain talent to them, age five, and discover them and send them to astro physics but dont put it on everybody, including the person who wants to been an honorable ups driver but needs a High School Diploma for it. Gosh. Dont throw out everybody. Whats it . Where is the line. Guest n do we have the choice in grade seven, grade eight . People selfidentify that im going to go into a career that wont need math, therefore ill stop at 12. I dont know how to make that call itch dont know how to put that in the system where people make that call if feel like its a false call. As i said, lets teach math. Its beautiful. Teach it with art, history, least reach the humanist as much as the scientists scientists ane mathematicians. Believe theres a really joyous curriculum to be had there and i dont think concept of algebra 2en in the standard curriculum are out of reach or the majority of people. Think its worth striving for that and its not just ludicrous to say lets have a go of it. Its the culture of how we do it. Have a culture where teachers can thrive. Ive seen so Many School Districts where the districts decided Everyone Needs to be on page 17 by next thursday. So give the kid aztecsbook and well see a textbook and see you on thursday. Thats not how it works. We cant be in uniform sync. Maybe thats the issue. Dont expect everything to be in sync. Lets make teaching math a come pew addition. Lets trust teachers. Thank you both. Before we close, let me remind you that there will be a book table here with books from both speakers on sale over here, and also that youre welcome to come up and ask questions as well after we close. Id like to close, as ive already mentioned, woody dudley is dish with the final words of his essay is mathematics necessary . Its worth reading. It intersections with a lot of the comments made by both speakers but also is slightly different. He finishings he is say with these words what Mathematics Education is for is not for jobs. It is to teach the race to reason. It does not have a nose all of six feet but it is the best method we have. It is not the only road to the goal but there is none better. Furthermore, it is worth teaching. Where are given to hyperbole i would say that mathematics this most Glorious Creation of the human intellect but im not given to hyperbole so i will not say that. However, when i am before the bar of judgment, heavenly or otherwise, and asked to justify my life, i will draw myself up proudly and say, i was one of the stewards of mathematics and it cake to no harm in my care. I will not say, i helped people get jobs. Thank you very much. Good night. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] booktv recently visit capitol hill to ask members of congress what theyre reading this summer. I read constantly. I grew up in a small town and the library was an important part of me life. The way i saw the world was not by in travel but what books checked out at the local public library. So, all my life ive been a reader, and still want that book in my hand, so im oldfashioned in wanting the hard copy, and im reading at the moment i often read biographies, history, things you might expect somebody who is interested in government, politics, to read, but the one at the moment is douglas macarthur, a biography. He predate mist time and i didnt know a lot about him other than he has been somewhat controversial, and this is a new back to me, written by arthur herman, and im learning about douglas macarthur, the general and military leader. Im just a few pages probably 50 pages from being done and im trying to get done this week before i get on the airplane so i dont have to carry another book ill soon be done with. I read just this week i was in a meeting in which john meacham, historian, author, was speaking, describing a book and this is probably the next one on my list, frank frank and winston, the story about two world war ii leaders and their relationship. I think john meacham is a great author, bright and smart and i thereof read what he writes. This is a brand new book but one i havent read and thats probably next on my list, but i keep track of what books i read, and again, not a lot of fiction, but things that have to do with the work i do here, and particularly things about people in the history of our country, the history of the world, that hopefully are inspiring and give you insight into how they conducted their lives and hough they did things that perhaps make a difference. But current politics, i just finished reading eye alter egos a story about the relationship between secretary clinton and president obama. And particularly as it relates to National Security and state department kind of issues. Two rivals in the primary who come together in the same administration, and an opportunity to get a feel for what is going on in washington, dc, place i work, but certainly dont have the insight behind the curtains what goes on at the white house and the state department in this administration. Another imagine security book just read this summer, michael hayden, former National Security director, talking about the space space and terrorism and the threats. Called playing to the edge about his time at the cia. So, again, same kind of venue. Mostly history. Sometimes current things. Lincolns boys caught my attention. Read it this summer. It is the story of two individuals that president lincoln then before he was president , met in illinois. They came with him and a story about their lives as two young men working in in the lynnline administration, particularly during the civil war and what happened anywhere lives afterwards. So, again, that i like to read history, less interested in the battlefields, but much more interested in the people. And then probably my Favorite Book of the summer has been hamilton. And i decide that ron chernow is a great author and im going to look for his books to continue to read. Have several of them i havent read and now interested in doing so. This caught my attention because of the musical. The musical, hamilton, is based upon this book, and happened to see it sitting in a book store, and interested to see what caught, in a sense, todays culture, todays audience, with a musical, based upon the life of alexander hamilton, our first treasury secretary, and so this is the probably the one i enjoyed the most, unfortunately the longest and thickest, and often turns out out to be that way. The thickest books seem to be the best. Book tv wants to know what your reading, tweet us your answer or post on facebook. This is booktv on cspan2, television for serious readers. Tonight, start agent 7 00, Carol Anderson describes the resistance toward black progress throughout american history. And al 1815, hugh jewish viewedil hampered the nazis war preparations. At 9 00 p. M. , Karen Greenberg takes a critical look at the laws enacted to fight the war on terrorism. At 10 00 p. M. , the life and career of Supreme Court Justice Louis brandeis. Then we have an interview with senator Lamar Alexander who talks about the books that have influenced his life and career,
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