Confessions of a High School Math Teacher

Sitting in a sparsely filled stale classroom, Johnny is listening to his teacher define the parameters of the squeeze theorem. “…therefore, the limit as x approaches c of f of x…” His eyes dart to the window where some kids are playing soccer outside while his teacher slowly finishes describing the theorem he has already written on the board.

Johnny has always loved math since he was a boy. The simplicity, the purity, the logic – it all just makes sense to him and has always come so easily for him.

As Johnny looks at the notation his teacher is writing on the board, he thinks to himself, this is so obvious, why is this a theorem in calculus? I wonder what practical applications this has or if someone actually uses it in an industry. Since this is so easy for me, maybe there is a job I could do someday that uses it.

He raises his hand. His teacher glances in his direction and raises an eyebrow at him as if to say, why are you interrupting me, I am going to tell you everything you need to know. Seeing that Johnny is not going to lower his hand, the teacher nods in his direction. Johnny asks, “So obviously if something is between two other things and the two other things are equal then that original something is equal, too.” The teacher shifts his eyes to the clock and back to Johnny, but Johnny continues, “Is there some practical application of this?”

Of course, thinks the teacher, they always have to know how it applies to their life otherwise they don’t care about the math. What an annoying generation.

“Well, Johnny, think of it like this: if Sally always gets an equal or better grade than Joey and an equal or worse grade than Billy; and if Joey and Billy both got a C on their test, then what did Sally get? A C.”

While the teacher turns back to the board to continue with his lesson and examples, happy that Johnny didn’t cause too long of a disruption in his presentation, Johnny slinks down in his chair. Seriously? He thinks. I already understood the ridiculously easy premise of the theorem. He sighs and begins completing his homework problems in his notebook.

---

In this story, it is easy to look down on the teacher. But think about where the teacher came from. He went through school, loving the logic of math and then pursued a mathematics education degree in college. He aced Calc 1, 2, and 3 and differential equations were a breeze. Graduating on top of the world, he entered the education field. He never learned the applications of the theorems he studied. He never heard about the multitude of industries that utilize higher level math on a daily basis. He has no library of knowledge to pull from when curious students ask these “why”s of math.

In his day, he was given one of three options as a math major by his professors:

1. Actuary (well, only if you are good at stats, and he wasn’t)
2. Accountant (but that was boring)
3. Mathematician (that’s only for super smart people, right?)

So who is really to blame for this teacher’s half-hearted unhelpful answer to Johnny’s question? The teacher? Maybe. But I think it is more than that.

---

I am a math teacher. I majored in math in college and tacked on education in my last year. I never had to take an applied math course (as a pure math major or as a math education major). There are universities that require an applied math course, but many have you choose one or two courses from various topics: actuarial science, computer science, classic mechanics, economics, fluid mechanics, etc. None of these actually help a teacher understand how and why the many theorems and postulates in math are used in a variety of current industries.

In order to fix the above systemic problem of mathematics in school and inspire young minds to pursue mathematical careers (other than a math teacher), I think a 400 level survey course of applied mathematics that explores various industries and examples of how higher level math is actually used in those industries, should be required for all math education majors.

How do you think we can bridge the gap so that teachers are equipped to illuminate the possibilities of math for aspiring students to fill this in demand field in our modern workplace, especially as America is lagging behind?