Math teachers should be more like football coaches
I used to teach maths (undergraduate level) and I was also a snowboarding coach. These two roles aren't really comparable.- In my snowboarding groups, there were usually about five students, no more than ten. We would spend a full day together, and I had time to spend quite a lot of time with each student individually. In my math "exercise" classes, there were up to 25 students. I would see them 3 hours a week (they had other teachers as well).- Unlike math students, snowboarding students were all very motivated. Nobody forced them to be there.- Snowboarding students have usually quite similar level of abilities. Of course, some learn faster than others but nobody improves 10 times faster than someone else (which happens in maths). If a student is better, she/he can move to another group the following week (something impossible in my math class).- As a math teacher, I'm also the one who evaluates them, and who stands between them and their degree. As a snowboarding coach, I'm the one who helps them achieving their goal. Different dynamic.- I'm confident that anyone without disability can learn to be a decent snowboarder after a few weeks of training. But I think that a lot of students don't have what it takes to learn the mathematics curriculum they signed up for, no matter how you teach them.