Not just to think out of the box, we often need to be (forcefully) thrown out of our cubicle if we truly want to be creative (or positively destructive).
It’s not easy to step out of our comfort zone, but it’s far better than living our mathematical life in a box, or under a half-witted boss or inept HOD.
Are we prepared to live differently from the way the Ministry of Education or the school or the publisher wants you to work? Each of these places doesn’t want you to rock the boat.
Are you still waiting until you got time to start working on that manuscript or time to read those math classics or bestsellers you’d have already read—if you wait for the (right?) time, the chances that you’ll never do it.
Long to indulge in some math poetry? Or volunteer as a math tutor in your community? Or set up that math clinic to help symbols-phobic sufferers by educating them that math is more psychological than logical? What’s preventing you? Family? Gym? Your daily dose of Nexflix or LinkedIn news?
A Math E-Card
Live your [mathematical] life the way you want to be lived rather than live it the way others want you to live it. Don’t wait for permission—it’ll never come.
Maybe we can all learn a thing or two from “chosen & anointed” Trump: Disrupt, dismiss, and destroy—in the positive sense!
It’s never too late to be an odd in a sea of evens!
Is this another ill-posed math question? Or just another arguably creative solution that put the teacher or tutor in a catch-22 response?
Let’s look at a sample of comments for and against the given answer.
They don’t want a digital clock! This is the correct answer for anyone that is somehow confused! 🤔
Teacher needed to say clock with hour and minute hands.
The question says “small clock”, not “analog clock”, therefore the answer is correct.
This is everything what’s wrong with current educational system. It sure does prepare you. To think in the frameworks they want you to think. For example “there is only one right solution to a problem and that ain’t it”
thats what happens when you let kids use ipads at a young age
This student should be transferred to art school immediately
On one hand I’m scared that the new generation can’t read physical clocks, on the other hand, I’m surprised by the out of the box thinking
If my child received a X for that answer, I would challenge it. There is nothing at all wrong. It is a small clock showing ten past eleven. 100% accurate. IF they wanted a conventional clock face that should have been stated. I’d have given 2 ticks for innovative thinking!
The question doesn’t specify that it meant “analog clock” plus it says “10 minutes past 11:00” which implies digital time as opposed to “10 minutes past 11 o’clock” which would imply analog time.
I would have drawn an analog and digital clock with a note saying the request was ambiguous and next time be more specific. Also how small? Another ambiguous request
How many of these responses would you agree or disagree with? Valid or invalid, or preposterous in some instances, most of these comments can’t be discounted offhand.
Followers or Oddballs?
At a time when politicians, pastors, or even prisoners are often hypocritically or insincerely pushing for an overhaul of their rigid educational system (from which they themselves benefited much)—which promotes rote learning or regurgitation, or prepares students to the test—are math teachers ready for students’ unconventional or disruptive solutions, which often border on the ridiculous or irreverent?
If a child (or a trained chimpanzee) presented the solution below to the above problem, what would your response or reaction be?
Would you mark it wrong or partially correct, because he or she had failed to take account that time on a clock is determined by the hour hand alone, with the minute hand acting as a mere convenience? Or in layman terms, the hour hand had also moved when the minute hand took a sixty-degree turn.
Or would you take this opportunity to introduce nonroutine (or more subtle faux) questions like the ones below?
1. What is the angle measure between the hands of a clock at 10 minutes past 11:00?
2. A clock reads ten minutes past eleven. What time would the clock read if the hands of the clock were interchanged?
3. Are there other times of the day when the hands of a clock would also show the same angle measure as when they were at 11:10?
The Positives of Ill-Posed Questions
An ill-posed question, or the unexpected answers to such a flawed question, is a gold mine for creative mathematical problem posing. It not only provides an off-the-wall sense of humor, but also gives math educators an opportunity to address students’ mathematical loopholes or their half-baked understanding of concepts.
