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Five high-school seniors cluster behind a pillar in a lecture hall at Rhode Island College. Behind them is a movie-sized screen, and in front looms a modest but intimidating stadium of seats. With the giggling and "Oh my god's" they're reviewing the game plan for making their upcoming presentation. By Julia Steiny, while some people vigorously oppose the requirement itself, others organized "cram camps" to give these students urged-needed help. The Northern Rhode Island Collaborative, an education-support organization, hired Christine Bonas to assemble educators to develop and deliver this two-week summer intensive. An ex-math teacher herself, and now guidance counselor, Bonas gets both the academic demands and the kids lack of motivation. Learn how to pitch your idea. To add a competitive game element, local businesses pooled $1,000 seed money for the winning plan. I'm at their pitch rehearsal, but superintendents and business leaders will evaluate the final presenations tomorrow.
Bonas was blunt. As a former math teacher, I can tell you that you're handed a textbook and told how to do it. We're not able to think outside the box. Partly that's a result of the way teachers are trained, and partly because districts have gotten more and more prescriptive for their teachers. She says, "It's a manufacturing process. You've got too much to do and you've got to get it done. You don't have time to be a dynamic teacher. She explains that "project-based learning", where students actively pursue a project of interest to themselves, takes more work to plan. To teach them a slope, Math teachers put a formula on the board, give them graph paper and show them the rise over run. There's always one kid who says, when am I going to use this? The teacher says, well, see that roller coaster? Parabolas are how to keep them from crashing. For far too long, project-based or "constructivist" learning has been at war with the "drill-and-kill" focus on building skills first. Skills are critical, but as Bonas notes, the kids don't learn if they don't care. Learning can't be either. Get kids hooked on solving problems that matter to them, but stop them here and there to teach and reinforce the skills they need. Bona's kids talked to bankers, attorneys, accountants. As one girl said about these interviews, "They, like, so opened my eyes to how much detail you need to have." Dream all you want, but the math has to work. skills and projects need a healthy balance.