Great Hearts

The visit to Great Hearts academies in Arizona last week was fast but fruitful. I am confident that we will be able to replicate this model of classical education.

Archway-Veritas Headmaster William Haley

Bill Haley, above, is the new headmaster. He was previously a third-grade teacher in the school. And boy, were his third graders great. I watched their new teacher, Miss Clark, teach them how to calculate the area of a rectangle. "What's the algorithm for the area of a triangle?" one kid asked. And all the other kids got very excited, begging the teacher to tell them how to calculate the area of a triangle. Miss Clark was young, had majored in philosophy at a small liberal arts college. "But here you are teaching math," I pointed out to her after the class was done. "Oh, I love math," she said. Clearly, she did. And her enthusiasm for math had been picked up by her students.

It was great to see also how Singapore Math, which we'll also be using, works in the classroom. Miss Clark didn't just tell her students to multiply base times height to calculate area, but drew a large rectangle on the board, showed them the base, the height,...and then drew lines through the rectangle to divvy it up into small squares. Then she numbered each square while counting out loud...showing her students why multiplying base times height gives you the right answer.

Singapore Math does a lot of this showing. Teachers don't just tell students which calculation to use, but show them using simple graphics why this calculation produces the correct answer.

Also notable is that teachers teaching Singapore Math don't just give an example or two, and then tell students to work on problems on their own. This is often not enough instruction for students to really understand what is being presented to them. With Singapore Math, teachers go over and over a single type of calculation, ensuring that all students truly and deeply understand.