#failingmaths

I haven’t done the research, but I would like to bet on this next statement:

“School children who are predicted a grade 1 or less at GCSE maths are more likely to become parents in the next 10 years than they are to get a grade 4 at GCSE maths in the next 10 years.”

If that statement does happen to be true, could we do something more valuable with the time these young people spend in maths classrooms aged 15 and 16?  I’m sure we could, and I’d like to tell the country about my proposal.

Before I do, I’d like to make some more statements, that are not evidenced here either, but that I think will be at least partly true for a majority of children who are predicted grade 1 or less:

They don’t like learning trigonometry and the like ... in fact it makes them feel very negative emotions.

They don’t like school much or at all, except perhaps for seeing their friends and maybe the dinners.

Their parents didn’t like school and didn’t teach these children any numeracy or literacy at home.  There were no counting games and songs, not much playing with shapes, patterns, sorting, dice, cards, tracing, and not much of the pre-school T.V. that is quite explicitly educational.  

The last assumption is the big one, and it is the basis for the idea I want to share today, because it represents multiple generations missing the benefits of a happy life in school because when they started school they were already way behind in the race.

If only we could break the cycle!  If only education could make a difference!  Maybe I should call my blog “Cloud Cuckoo Land” because I do realise that in state education professionals work within very tight constraints.  But indulge me a little while longer!  

I would like children who “couldn’t give a $*&t, miss”, children who don’t want to know about Pythagorus theorum or factorising quadratics or any of the other things we can’t honestly convince them they need to know ... I would like those people out of the GCSE maths classes.  They really don’t want to do what it takes to get a GCSE maths grade 4 at this point in their lives.  I would like to offer them something more fun and more useful.  Genuinely.  I would like to offer them a course in how to support young children in maths.

As they learn about good ideas to promote toddler numeracy they can feel their own expertise ... you only need be a couple of steps ahead of a toddler to be an ace at this stuff.  If they discover all the free resources that are out there and if they are given guidance on how to enjoy these resources with a young child they are more likely to break the cycle that has put them in their current relationship with maths education, and give something better to their own future children.

Could you picture the children in this group racing to complete shape sorter toys?  If we could get them enjoying maths toys they might share and develop the experience with their children in the future.