Email from David Kapolka to CPAM ListServ

An interesting question to ask yourself:

"Ten years from now what lessons will my students remember from my class?"

Ed Burger posed this question in his talk at the NCTM Regional in Kansas City.
Ed is a professor of math at Williams College in Williamstown MA.
http://www.williams.edu/go/math/eburger/

Ed has authored a couple of interesting books: "Heart of Mathematics", and "Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz".
What impressed me about Ed's message was that he feels the most important thing we teach our students, as math educators, are important life lessons. His top ten list of life lessons:

1. Just do it.
2. Make mistakes and fail but never give up.
3. Keep an open mind.
4. Explore the consequences of new ideas.
5. Seek the essential.
6. Understand the issue.
7. Understand simple things deeply.
8. Break difficult problems in to easier ones.
9. Examine issues from different points of view.
10. Look for patterns and similarities.

Ed made some comments about each of the items in his list. I'll try to paraphrase some of what I remember him saying. This may be presumptuous on my part, so forgive me if it sounds like preaching, but all of you are members the mathematical choir, and I am soon to be the next temporary choir director.


1. Just do it.
Sometimes in life (and educational courses) we are asked to do challenging things we don't fully understand or appreciate. Just do it.
2. Make mistakes and fail but never give up.
How often do we as educators make mistakes? We learn from them, our students need to learn persistence instead of instant gratification.
3. Keep an open mind.
4. Explore the consequences of new ideas.
Forget status quo. If a new idea is a possibility, examine it.
5. Seek the essential.
This is true in understanding math problems as well as life's challenges.
6. Understand the issue.
Do your homework on all topics, math and otherwise.
7. Understand simple things deeply.
For me personally, this is why it is so important to have strong math teachers at all levels K-12. You will struggle with the abstract if you do not understand the basics.
8. Break difficult problems in to easier ones.
How many times have we said this?
9. Examine issues from different points of view.
10. Look for patterns and similarities.

I challenge all of you to come up with your own top ten list. I'm working on mine.

David
Sec MI 93
CPAM Pres-Elect