Education, politics, and anything else that catches my attention.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Math And Music
Are you one of those who believes in "discovery learning" and thinks students should "invent" their own ways of doing math problems? If so, imagine if that methodology were applied to teaching music.
There's actually a key relationship between music and math. Also music and art. There's a university course on the mathematical permutations of M.C. Escher and it is generally said that Mozart was mathematical in his etudes and studies. Having said that, I think too many researchers think that all courses can be taught in a vacuum. The nature of learning is to cause connections between what we know and what we need to know. By limiting the method of delivery to whatever is acceptable at the time ignores the fact that kids have different learning styles and what works for one won't work for another. Plus, there are simply some things that have to be memorized. The alphabet, multiplication tables, chemistry formulas are just a few. There is no dishonor in having to memorize. For some people that works. But instead it seems that we are trying to socialize education by offering one course in one way and expected all the kids to conform. If that's not communism, then I don't know what is.
There's actually a key relationship between music and math. Also music and art. There's a university course on the mathematical permutations of M.C. Escher and it is generally said that Mozart was mathematical in his etudes and studies. Having said that, I think too many researchers think that all courses can be taught in a vacuum. The nature of learning is to cause connections between what we know and what we need to know. By limiting the method of delivery to whatever is acceptable at the time ignores the fact that kids have different learning styles and what works for one won't work for another. Plus, there are simply some things that have to be memorized. The alphabet, multiplication tables, chemistry formulas are just a few. There is no dishonor in having to memorize. For some people that works. But instead it seems that we are trying to socialize education by offering one course in one way and expected all the kids to conform. If that's not communism, then I don't know what is.
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