2. Many teachers are not up to the task. Most retired engineers can teach math with their eyes closed, but no amount of instruction will make most teachers' college grads able to teach it.
I agree with the first statement and have been horrified by the math phobia I've seen from some teachers. While retired engineers could make good math teachers for students whom math is intuitively obvious, it can be a pretty bad fit for struggling math students.
It would be better to have teachers like John Mighton who initially struggled with math but overcame through perseverance. He developed the JUMP (Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies) program and wrote
The Myth of Ability. I expected to disagree with much of the book based on the title. It was not what I expected and he asserts young children are capable of understanding advanced mathematics, but doesn't ask students who have fallen behind to struggle with open-ended problems without guidance.
The majority of the book is a step by step logical approach for teaching mathematics. Dottie, it may be a good resource for the girl you are tutoring.
