John Mighton

The first third of this book covers the author's inspiring stories of overcoming math difficulties, both in his own life and in the lives of underprivileged children who benefited from the nonprofit JUMP (Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies) tutoring program that he helped start. With hundreds of "delayed" students who had been labeled as less-able, John Mighton proved that virtually anyone can learn math when it is taught effectively.

Mighton exposes the myth of inability for what it is: a class-sorting social construct that exists to perpetrate an outmoded model of society. To quote him directly, "Children who grow up frustrated and insecure, meeting only a fraction of their potential, unable to reason clearly or weigh the consequences of their actions, and having witnessed few models of effective charity, will be exploited and misled with ease by corporations and politicians seeking gain. Until educated people devote themselves to breaking this cycle of ignorance, no amount of political action is likely to improve our condition."

Feudalism worked fine for centuries (at least for the select few it served), but times have changed. We need to mobilize all the human potential we can to address the serious problems and issues that we face in today's world.

The last 2/3 of the book provides actual curriculum samples to help educators do just that. These lessons all follow the principle of keeping each step as simple as possible to allow students to experience small successes as they go, building on their accumulated mastery to achieve greater successes.

This book is an inspiration for anyone who cares about education as well as a tool and a resource for anyone who is actually teaching elementary math.… (mehr)