Why English is not Math, and never will be…(not stating the obvious at all)

One…let me say, my title is completely misleading. I am, in fact, going to state the obvious. (And possibly offend every mathematician that has ever lived.)

When reading the Street essay, I was completely taken back by one phrase, and I continuously contemplate what that phrase means and wonder if my teachers applied it to their teaching styles, and if I’m just being a hater for no reason. Whats the phrase? SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN TEACHING METHODS (AS IT APPLIES TO LITERACY). After mulling it over for hours and days, I still have the same reaction. “What the hell?” There is no way to justify or even make sense of it. Especially in the article when it is compared to the teaching of mathematics. I’m not quite understanding. You either get multiplication, geometry, calculus, or you don’t. You don’t just get a Sylvia Plath poem. There is an analysis process. Not to say there isn’t an analysis process for math. But there isn’t a formula to try to make meaning of a Plath poem. Because there isn’t one meaning! It varies across time, place, person, and life experiences. Not everyone has had the feeling of wanting to stick their head in an oven, but the ones who have, dagnabit they just may be able to decipher Plath’s last day poems a bit more concisely.

With that being said, if the scientifically proven teaching methods involved the changing of culture through generations, there may be an argument. If they said, “it is scientifically proven that students change and the education system changes with them, so of course the educators themselves are going to change their approaches”, I’d be okay with that. It’s a bit of a “DUH” statement. Educators and the education system are indeed just that, a system. It changes, needs to be modified, updated to make sure it keeps up with the current needs of the student population. With the video by Wesch, I completely agree. That we are the machine. And that’s not a bad thing at all. We created it, and we have to control it. Our constant advances affect our students lives outside of the classroom, and if we want to keep them interested in education, we have to show them that we do accept them culturally, and their actions outside of the classroom. I don’t see the ‘using’ us portion. We are in control of how much we decide to integrate it into our lives.

http://luxuryawaits.com/versesandflow/episode-guide.aspx

About 8:06, this poet describes exactly what I just explained, and something I feel everyone should know about our literacy practices, they are always changing, and we are always in control.