Math Power: How To Help Your Child Love Math, Even If You Don't - Softcover

Kenschaft, Patricia C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201772892 ISBN 13: 9780201772890

Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books, 1997

Synopsis

You may be shocked to learn that in America today, twenty-four states have no math requirements at all for prospective elementary school teachers. Until states require their teachers to learn more math, parents are their children's primary hope. Dynamic mathematician Pat Kenschaft believes that although math phobia is rampant, it is also unnecessary. With this guide any child can overcome mediocre math teaching in school and parental math anxiety at home. Kenschaft shares with parents her strategies for understanding and teaching math concepts, explaining what math is and how it works. Her lively techniques for understanding math—through games, questions, and conversations, as well as specific math activities—can help preschoolers to ten-year-olds develop math ability.

About this title

Reviews

This book was written by a university math professor and mother of two to guide parents of preschool and elementary school children through the math programs typical of U.S. public schools. The first half offers the usual good suggestions for ways parents can encourage children to think and learn about math at home. The second half is uniquely valuable, containing specific advice for how parents can evaluate the math education at their school and how to approach teachers and administrators to suggest improvements. Parents are urged to read the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards to know what their schools should aim for. The author is against rote learning and standardized tests, believing that they preclude joy in learning. Chapters titled "How Drill and Kill Cripples U.S. Math Education" and "What Every Parent Should Know About Testing and Grading" show how the system rather than the math itself may cause problems for a child. An excellent bibliography suggests resources for math education reform. A parent armed with the advice in this book could do a lot to help improve a child's education.?Amy Brunvand, Univ. of Utah Lib., Salt Lake City
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0201772892
• ISBN 13: 9780201772890
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320