A Universal Language?

When it comes to bringing mathematics from different countries and cultures into the classroom, I believe that it is extremely important because it shows how different countries approach problems. I do not believe the different historical backgrounds should be taught along with the math, because most students will not care. As evident by the high school visit from NDSS, the students expressed interests in learning to tackle problems in different methods, because have options opens up different avenues and strategies that they could use. They like learning multiple strategies because every student is different, and only learning what the teacher prefers, while useful, might not be what every student can benefit from. For example, I learned how to calculate and solve systems of linear equations in grade 10 in a western approach. It was hard to understand, even to this day, and I still have trouble trying to explain it to my students using that very same approach. A few years ago, I took a linear algebra course, and we were introduced to the idea of matrices. This system made solving those very same questions extremely easy. The visual aspect of a matrix allowed me to think abstractly, and helped me view those problems in a new light. Cultural strategies in mathematics should be brought in to the classrooms, because by only teaching students one method, we are implicitly stating that all math problems can only be approached in one way.

The universal aspect comes in the question itself. In both North America and much of Asia, the content structure is very similar. Even though Asian countries may learn more and learn faster, they still go through a relatively similar progression of mathematics. Both cultures solve linear equations, quadratic formulas, and trigonometric problems, but they may tackle problems differently. The situated cultural practice is interesting, because they are all solving the same question, in a different practiced style. Math for me, is a universal written language, because we are interested in solving quantifiable questions for most of high school. An answer of $20 in Canada is the same as $20 in China, just with a different spoken language. The difference is that differing cultures may come to the $20 conclusion in separate ways.