Author Archives
In 2018 I semi-retired by retiring from Weston High School after my 21st year teaching mathematics there. This was also my 44th year as a teacher altogether. In 2023 I retired fully, adding in my 18 years at Harvard’s Crimson Summer Academy each summer. For 21 years I had taught at the Saturday Course in Milton, MA, and I used to serve on the board of the Dorchester Historical Society.
I read, cook, and spend a lot of time building my model railroad. For some reason I’m left with less free time than would be ideal, considering that I’m supposed to be retired, but somehow I also manage to devote time to my wife, Barbara, and to our varying number of cats (once up to six, but now sadly down to one).
Larry Davidson
ljd@larrydavidson.com
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The Last Samurai
Don’t you just hate it when someone writes a book review without having actually read the book? Of course I’m not going to do that…but I do need to give a preliminary comment about Helen DeWitt’s The Last Samurai (not… Read More ›
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The distance formula
What are the pros and cons of teaching the distance formula? I can think of two of each: Pro #1: It’s useful and convenient. Pro #2: Future teachers may expect your students to know it. Con #1: It’s nothing but… Read More ›
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Khan Academy revisited
Khan Academy used to be a good idea. Maybe it still is; I haven’t made anything like a thorough review of their hundreds of offerings, so it’s impossible for me to tell. But I’m skeptical. Before examining the reasons for… Read More ›
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Teaching science through language
We like to claim that linguistics is a science, but I’ve never before seen any explicit discussion of using it to teach scientific principles. An intriguing abstract from Anne Lobeck suggests some possibilities along those lines, particularly pointing out that linguistics… Read More ›
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Why asking questions might not be the best way to teach
Some years ago, one of my students asked me this question: “Why is it that whenever I ask you a question, you always respond by asking me a question?” I was tempted, of course, to say “Why do you think… Read More ›
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Among Others
I wish I had read Jo Walton’s Among Others when I was a teenager. Since this novel wasn’t written until 2011, I couldn’t have that opportunity. It would have had a big impact on my life. So I had to settle for… Read More ›
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Significant figures
Math teachers and science teachers never agree about significant figures — neither about their importance nor about how to use them. Math books and competitions tend to ignore the issue, or else they promulgate arbitrary rules, such as “answers must… Read More ›
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The City and the City
What an unusual novel! It’s billed as science fiction, but it isn’t really. It’s more like…well…geography fiction, or government fiction, or some other nonexistent category. This fascinating story takes place in the present day (more or less) in a fictional… Read More ›
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“What Math Students Say”
How many times have you heard math students say these things? (She isn’t one of my students, but she certainly could be.)
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The WWW Trilogy
Yes! If you want to read a science fiction novel that holds your attention and makes you think, you should definitely read all three books in Robert J. Sawyer’s WWW Trilogy: Wake, Watch, and Wonder. Like much of hard science… Read More ›
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Another math summer camp
You’re looking for a two-week math summer camp, aren’t you? Or perhaps you know an advanced student for whom this would be just the thing. While I don’t have any first-hand knowledge of the Mathematica Summer Camp, it does look… Read More ›
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Excellent tech support
I know, I know, the title sounds like an oxymoron; no one ever gets excellent tech support. Mostly we like to grumble about how bad it is, and justifiably so. Mark Bernstein wrote an apt observation about this matter (on… Read More ›
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The Other Wes Moore
By this point you’ve probably heard of Wes Moore, as he has been making quite a splash in the mainstream media from NPR to Oprah. After hearing him on NPR, I just had to read his non-fiction memoir, The Other Wes… Read More ›
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Levels vs. tracks
Adult friends often ask me about “tracking” at Weston. Apparently they’re referring to their own high school experiences, in which a student entered high school in a certain “track,” such as honors or business, and then remained there forever. This… Read More ›
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Shades of Grey
Don’t read Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey if you dislike offbeat science fiction. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Red Dwarf come to mind…although Fforde’s novel is a bit more down-to-earth, so to speak. Maybe it should be considered… Read More ›
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Among Others: one comment
“Reading it is like being there.” That was a comment (on The Lord of the Rings) uttered by Mori, the narrator and protagonist of Jo Walton’s fascinating novel, Among Others. It was that comment that hooked me on this novel, which… Read More ›
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A plate at Bella Luna
As is the case in most restaurants, when you sit down at a table at Bella Luna you see a place setting in front of you. But at Bella Luna you get a plate that has been drawn or painted… Read More ›
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The Square Root of Murder
Of course I wanted to like this book. What could be better than a mystery about a Massachusetts math teacher? But unfortunately this novel by Ada Madison (pen name of Camille Minichino) falls flat, IMHO at least. Apparently my opinion is… Read More ›
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MCAS again
It’s easy to find plenty to dislike about MCAS, but I was particularly struck by the cogency of Sanjoy Mahajan’s piece entitled “Public School Math Doesn’t Teach Students How to Reason.” Aside from the usual arguments against MCAS — it… Read More ›
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Working hard is not enough.
This post, like part of yesterday’s, brings up an educational dilemma:
On the one hand, we want students to work hard. That means that we need to provide incentives as rewards for working hard. Grades are pretty much the only currency we have in high school, so students expect to get good grades if they put in a lot of effort.
Learning Strategies 