Teachers of Mathematics

TLDR

Many school teachers lack enthusiasm, understanding, or empathy for mathematics, failing to embody true mathematics instruction. We define teachers of mathematics as those possessing specific attributes that distinguish them from such educators.

Abstract

There are persons who do not like to teach who are conducting classes in our schools. There are persons who do not like mathematics who have been assigned to handle algebra classes and to instruct in arithmetic. There are men and women who do not understand mathematics yet they are engaged by boards of education to instruct in the subject. There are people with no sympathy for, nor understanding of children's desires and ambitions who daily browbeat their assigned pupils into fearful obedience through routine lessons. There are pedants who asperse educational theory and methods of learning, seeking only to perpetuate in their pupils the memorized meaningless manipulation of symbols that constitutes their entire stock of knowledge. They are blind to the world about them. These are not the teachers of mathematics. But we are teachers of mathematics if we have the following attributes.