Reflections 237cators, too confined in their views of mathematics then we shall produce a genera-
tion of adders and dividers rather than pupils who are seekers and solvers of prob-
lems and makers of new mathematical meanings’ (Wilkinson, 1998, p. 23).
It is not easy to teach mathematics well and some teachers liken it to a minefield
(Desforges and Cockburn, 1987). For many the struggle is like understanding the
picture of the boa constrictor at the beginning of this book. Some may choose to
ignore children’s own mathematics; others will find it hard to accept that children’s
own mathematical marks are the foundations of their learning the abstract symbol-
ism of mathematics and written methods. Supporting deep levels of learning is not
always straightforward but in the chapters of this book we hope you will have found
some pointers to support your pedagogy, and can hear the children’s mathematical
voices shining through:and he laughed again. ‘You are not fair, little prince,’ I said. ‘I don’t know how to
draw anything except boa constrictors from the outside and boa constrictors from
the inside.’
‘Oh, that will be alright,’ he said, ‘children understand.’ (Saint-Exupéry, 1958, pp.
77–8)Further Reading
- Saint-Exupéry, A. de (1958) Le Petit Prince. London: Heinemann.
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