Contemplating a Child-Friendly Mathematical Education

Abstract

In this chapter, the children talk about ways of improving mathematics education for children. They talk about the disjunction between the mathematics they learn at school and the mathematics required in the workplace. They point to the overwhelming quantity of mathematics topics they are expected to study, the lack of interesting modes of presentation of mathematical ideas, the teacher’s indifference to their varying needs as learners, and lack of school support as areas for improvement. They contemplate their lives after schooling as challenging in new times – and wonder how learning mathematics could have better equipped them for a world crying out for solutions to burning problems.