Reviews

Top 10 Reasons to Skip Math Class: A how-not-to Math Guide for Parents and Teachers

In the January 2001 issue of Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, NCTM.

This book offers brief and entertaining descriptions of illogical methods and topics used in the teaching of mathematics. The author debunks some of the myths in current and past mathematics education. The book makes sense. It should be required reading before all mathematics curriculum meetings or classroom teaching. In this collection of observations on the absurdity of mathematics education, Gadanidis has had the courage to make public many of the comments that have been whispered at teachers' meetings and in education courses for decades.

In November 2000 issue of Teaching Children Mathematics, NCTM.

This page-turner gives teachers and parents plenty of mathematics- related issues to ponder, including instruction in traditional whole-number algorithms, the usefulness of manipulatives and calculators, and children's natural thought processes. The book, a scant thirty-seven pages with plenty of white space, is brimming with zingers that stay with you long after you have finished reading. I started reading this book at 10:30 one night, thinking that I would crawl through a few pages at a time. I could not put it down and have referred to it several times since. Gadanidis, a Canadian math consultant, makes bold statements about the mismatch between how childern think and how educators present mathematics. You may not agree with everything he says, but you will surely think -- which is the author's goal, both for us and for our students.