User:Night-Timer

I joined wikiP because I have some things to say about teaching.

I don't think the present methods used in schools in England (where I was a student) In America ((where my son was a student) and in Mexico (where I was a teacher) are best suited to the task. One of my objections is about the lack of physical activity involved in lessons. Sitting at a desk in a class is, in my opinion, one of the least effective ways to learn. Lets take Maths as an example: I was never good at this because I found it boring. Why was it boring? Because the subject matter was always abstract! How does one discover the area of a field that is xx long and xx wide?  What a question - "who the hell cares?" was my reaction.   I think the teacher should have taken the class out onto the football field and taught the Math there! We would have had unlimited questions dealing with areas and tradjectories, we could have made all sorts of meaningful discoveries all involving Maths. A Maths teacher once said to me "Boys are impossible when it comes to Maths - they just don't have any interest". This teacher was also the football coach !

I asked him "What were your interests at that age?" (grade 10 -12) He said "motor cars I used to rebuild engines with my dad". "There you have it I told him. If you teach maths related to engines the boys will love it. for the girls you can relate it to dress design or cooking - let them choose a subject that interests them, then they will want to learn the Maths">Night-Timer 01:10, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Many years ago I discovered that there was a somewhat revolutionary system of mathematics developed by a scientist while held as a POW by the NAZIS in WWII. His Name was Jakov Trachtenberg and he spent many months locked in an iron box in an open yard with very little food or water. the Nazis wanted him to work on their weapons projects but he steadfastly refused. His guards could not believe he could keep his composure while locked in a four foot high iron box through hot days and cold nights for weeks at a time. Jakov stayed sane by developing an entire system of mathematics that needed only the times tables from 2x to 11x. You can find more information by Googling "Tachtenberg Mathematics"Night-Timer 03:26, 5 October 2009 (UTC)