Dan Meyer Proposes a New Way to Teach Math to Students

“Can I ask you to recall a time when you really loved something?” Dan Meyer asked an audience at a recent convention. “A movie, an album, a song, or a book. And you recommended it wholeheartedly to someone you also really liked. You anticipated that reaction, you waited for it, and it came back and the person hated it. That is the exact same state that I spent every working day for the past six years.”
What exactly is Dan Meyer’s job? It sounds completely awful to me.
Surprisingly – or maybe not so surprisingly – Dan Meyer is a high school math teacher. Meyer says he is providing a product (math education) that nobody wants to buy, but are required by law to do so. However, Meyer says that the future of math education is actually quite bright.
Watch this video of Meyer’s recent speech to other teachers about the importance of math education and how to increase students’ interest in the subject, something President Obama has been supporting. Don’t worry, this is not just about how to perform long division or complex calculus. Meyer’s is very entertaining and provides a very unique and interesting view about the importance of math in every day life.