Education System is Tough Nut to Crack
by rrusczyk, Jun 17, 2006, 3:21 PM
We have a new Foundation project through which we will give a generous stipend to 5-10 middle schools in the San Diego area to start new math teams. The goal of the program is to build math clubs/problem solving activities where they didn't exist before. The teachers will get a nice stipend, and have access to extra funds to enroll in MOEMS, MATHCOUNTS, AMC 8. We'll also provide some materials and direction.
I suspect if we could get in front of teachers we could get their attention (but maybe not - there was no interest when I talked to high school teachers at the UCSD contest, but then, I didn't mention how much money the teachers would be paid, which will likely be in the![$\$[/dollar]50$](//latex.artofproblemsolving.com/3/2/3/32378bc367468bd9c64b19c187d822560bac5d0f.png)
per hour range). However, I'm finding it very hard to get anyone in the school system to take me seriously, even though I already have the money. My next step is to follow Larry Jacobson's advice (he's the current executive director of MATHCOUNTS) - give up on the math administrators and go after the politicians (i.e., the superintendent). Altogether, it's really frustrating, though. I've probably spent a dozen hours trying to get the attention of people who are paid to care about math education, but I'm not getting very far.
I suspect if we could get in front of teachers we could get their attention (but maybe not - there was no interest when I talked to high school teachers at the UCSD contest, but then, I didn't mention how much money the teachers would be paid, which will likely be in the
![$\$[/dollar]50$](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/3/2/3/32378bc367468bd9c64b19c187d822560bac5d0f.png)
per hour range). However, I'm finding it very hard to get anyone in the school system to take me seriously, even though I already have the money. My next step is to follow Larry Jacobson's advice (he's the current executive director of MATHCOUNTS) - give up on the math administrators and go after the politicians (i.e., the superintendent). Altogether, it's really frustrating, though. I've probably spent a dozen hours trying to get the attention of people who are paid to care about math education, but I'm not getting very far.
February 2012
January 2012