According to legend, this was once the actual final exam at my high school. But according to legend, England chose kings by sword-yanking contests, so, you know.
Math Exams with Only One Question
8
A Graphical Compendium of Changes From My Lifetime
How do you master the rhythm of the logs?
If Euclid Became an Oak
How to Count to the Largest Number Ever Used
UK vs. US: Who’s got the right way to teach math(s)?
A lot of things startled me when I started teaching in the UK. The accents. The ubiquity of tea. (As I like to say: “ubiquitea.”) The adorable and inexplicable pluralization of “math.” But what stunned me most was that the Brits don’t follow a sequence of math courses anything like ours.
You know the traditional American chain—Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, and so on?
In Britain, they make no such distinctions. It’s all “maths.”
Now, we teachers know that we inhabit imperfect systems. (Some days, we feel like we know it all too well.) I don’t think you’d say we’re unduly attached to them. If you ask most British or American math teachers, “Does your country have a well-functioning educational system?” you’ll get anything from a cynical scowl to a bout of weeping.
But ask us, “Isn’t the other country’s structure better?” and you’ll witness a sudden and righteous swell of patriotism.
