Class Reaction

Catherine Z Elgin's article " Education and the Advancement of Understanding" really made me go back and think about the math for elementary teachers class we took in the fall. We talked a little about this in class, but I am glad that we read an article that talked about teacher's knowledge versus their student's knowledge. I have never been very good at math, so when I learned that I would have to take a math course for this major I was a bit concerned. When I found out it was a math class for teachers my anxiety lessened, because I thought "How hard could it be?" Well, after the first day of class my anxiety returned full force. We were learning concepts that went way over my head. In my frustration I asked our professor why I would need to know such difficult math, if I would be teaching a kindergarten or first grade class. One particular concept that blew my mind, was adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing different bases. We were learning bases 2, 3,4,ect. Why would I need to know such a difficult idea, when the children I would be teaching would be learning the most basic concepts of base 10 at the most! Dr. Costner explained to me that even though we all knew base 10, we needed to actually understand what it meant. By learning the other bases we were grasping the concept of bases, not just memorizing how to work in base 10. She told me that before I could teach how to work a problem in base 10, I needed to know what it really meant. I am very grateful to have had such a wonderful teacher like Dr. Costner. I made it through the class, because of her excellent instruction, as well as making me understand the idea of "knowledge." There is a big difference between knowing something and memorizing it. I believe that Elgin was trying to say the same thing that Dr. Costner did. How can a teacher teach something if they do not fully understand it? I enjoyed the class discussion on this idea because I think I could relate this article to my teaching a lot more than some other articles we have read. Plato said "Teaching is Knowing." As teachers of young children we will obviously know more than our students, but by actually understanding ideas we will TEACH the children, not simply TELL them.