How to Fall in Love...

With apologies to Jay and the Americans...

...our (slightly altered) song stanza for the day:

Come a little bit closer
You're my kind of math
So big and so strong
Come a little bit closer
I'm all alone
And the night is so long

In my dreams...

This old math teacher sees students casting aside their nightly social networks and video games and, instead, embracing the ageless beauty of mathematics.

Skeptical?

Math isn't "sexy" enough?

Allow me to offer proof to the contrary...

Let's get right down to the basics:

1 + 1 = 2

B-O-R-I-N-G...

...you say?

Exactly why the education reformers are down on "traditional Math"...

...number facts, no "creativity", no alternative answers!

What red-blooded kid with a natural passion for learning would want to spend time studying "1 + 1"? The answer is always "2". Ask any education "reformer" worth her/his salt...today's "learner" places value on problems that have more than one possible outcome.

Well, as "twos" have found out since the time of Adam and Eve...

..."1 + 1" often produces "3", not to mention twins, triplets, etc.

It don't get any more open-ended than that!

Hmmm...

Maybe the example above was a case of putting the cart before the horse.

Possibly, we should take a step back...

...to "1".

Adam!

The very first mathematician...

...who on a dark and lonely night, discovered "division" and:

1 = 2

I'm not "ribbing" you, the Bible tells me so!

Moving on to our next equation...

1 + 1 + 1 = 3

Personally, this is my favorite...

..."scientifically based research" that refutes the so-called "reformers" fixation on "small groups" as the silver bullet in education.

There is abundant evidence...

...that "1 + 1 + 1" often equals D-I-V-O-R-C-E!

Yes, I could go on and on and on...