Happy Memorial Day

I hope you are having a sunny/fun long weekend. Mine's been nice and relaxing.

A quick plug for a book I just finished: The Teaching Gap, by Stigler and Hiebert. It offers a really interesting comparison between middle school math education here, in Japan, and in Germany. It also treats teaching as what I think it really is, what the authors describe as a "cultural" practice. That is to say, our society's view of what teaching and learning are is so deeply entrenched, change is difficult to bring about; in particular, change is impossible using traditional, university research-based, wonkish, top-down approaches. The authors argue for an approach, modeled on the Japanese lesson study program, that begins with individual classes and lessons and builds outward.

In the the end, the authors contend, change will only ever be slow and gradual, which presents its own set of problems with a public that is impatient and indicators that fail to register small changes. While I'm not sold that the Japanese have perfected teaching, the comparison of what happens here, as opposed to Japan, is pretty eye-opening, and the alternatives proposed by the authors are worth some thought. Plus, it's a quick read.

PS: The stock exchange trip was tremendous. The kids were amazing and really into it. Still hearing some backlash from those who couldn't go, but it's dying down...hopefully...