“There is no such thing as an ugly goal.
Ugly is not to score one.”
Is it possible to eliminate the bell curve in math class?
Imagine if someone at a dinner party casually announced, “I’m illiterate.” It would never happen, of course; the shame would be too great. But it’s not unusual to hear a successful adult say, “I can’t do math.” That’s because we think of math ability as something we’re born with, as if there’s a “math gene” that you either inherit or you don’t.
School experiences appear to bear this out. In every math class I’ve taken, there have been slow kids, average kids and whiz kids. It never occurred to me that this hierarchy might be avoidable. No doubt, math comes more easily to some people than to others. But the question is: Can we improve the methods we use to teach math in schools — so that everyone develops proficiency?
![thedailywhat:
Science Experiment of the Day: Toppenish High School student Gaby Rodriguez spent nearly her entire senior year faking a pregnancy for a school project.
Only her mother, her boyfriend, a few friends, and the school’s principal were in on the ruse — her teachers, classmates, and six of her seven siblings were none-the-wiser. The point she was trying to make? “Teenagers tend to live in the shadows of [stereotypes, rumors and statistics],” Gaby told an all-school assembly at Wednesday’s grand reveal of her presentation, aptly titled “stereotypes, rumors and statistics.”
“Many things were said about me. Many things traveled all the way back to me,” she told the room, before asking students and teachers to read aloud statements made during the course of her experiment criticizing her and blaming the pregnancy. “Her attitude is changing, and it might be because of the baby or she was always this annoying and I never realized it,” read one such statement. “I’m fighting against those stereotypes and rumors because the reality is I’m not pregnant,” Gaby said before exposing a baby bump made of wire mesh and cotton quilt batting.
“She sacrificed her senior year to find out what it would be like to be a potential teen mom,” principal Trevor Greene told the Yakima Herald. “I admire her courage. I admire her preparation. I give her mother a lot of credit for backing her up on this.”
[herald / obscurestore.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lk28auVIZ81qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
Science Experiment of the Day: Toppenish High School student Gaby Rodriguez spent nearly her entire senior year faking a pregnancy for a school project.
Only her mother, her boyfriend, a few friends, and the school’s principal were in on the ruse — her teachers, classmates, and six of her seven siblings were none-the-wiser. The point she was trying to make? “Teenagers tend to live in the shadows of [stereotypes, rumors and statistics],” Gaby told an all-school assembly at Wednesday’s grand reveal of her presentation, aptly titled “stereotypes, rumors and statistics.”
“Many things were said about me. Many things traveled all the way back to me,” she told the room, before asking students and teachers to read aloud statements made during the course of her experiment criticizing her and blaming the pregnancy. “Her attitude is changing, and it might be because of the baby or she was always this annoying and I never realized it,” read one such statement. “I’m fighting against those stereotypes and rumors because the reality is I’m not pregnant,” Gaby said before exposing a baby bump made of wire mesh and cotton quilt batting.
“She sacrificed her senior year to find out what it would be like to be a potential teen mom,” principal Trevor Greene told the Yakima Herald. “I admire her courage. I admire her preparation. I give her mother a lot of credit for backing her up on this.”
[herald / obscurestore.]
