Lockhart's Lament - Response

 I am aligned with Lockhart. His lament has helped articulate the ‘wrongness’ that we’ve all felt in high school classrooms for so long. It is tragic that our schools continue to operate in the same way, despite us having writing like this in the world.

I am very drawn to the style of teaching he proposes. I believe that enabling autonomy in students will deeply enrich their learning, relative to what it is now. That we can provide resources and guidance, but ultimately, they will pursue the paths that appear to teach of them. In a separate class, I recently wrote about what qualities I believe describe ‘authentic assessment’. I noted that generally, when authentic art is produced, it is done so without expectation – the artist is not attempting to mimic anything. I speculated that authentic assessment should be absent of as many expectations as possible. I feel this would align very well with Lockhart’s conceptions of math class, since students would be pursuing their own problems without some concrete destination. This feels Authentic.

Lockhart speaks about giving students the opportunity to discover math. This resonates hard – as I’ve mentioned earlier, a book on Greek Mathematics provided me with this experience first-hand. If we could cultivate these experiences in students, math class would become a favorite for many.

Lastly, I want to note when Lockhart states: “Teaching is not about information. It is about having an honest intellectual relationship with your students”. This sentence gives me confidence that Lockhart’s ideas are grounded in humility. He understands that a teacher’s role is to engage with students, listening and guiding them to math’s natural wonders. What’s more is he offers (general) methods of accomplishing this - rich questions, student autonomy, and minimal expectations. These are qualities I hope to instill in my classroom.