Book #33: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster Milo is a boy who just doesn't know what to do with himself. When he's in school he wants to be out and when he's out he wants to be in. One day, a tollbooth appears in his bedroom and because he has nothing better to do, he uses it and is transported to a magical land of letters, numbers and nonsense. He embarks on a quest with a watchdog named Tock to rescue Rhyme and Reason. During his adventure, he finds that life is far from boring.
For me, this was a middle of the road book. Good at some parts, lost my interest at others. I ended up just reading beginnings and endings of paragraphs at some parts and completely skipping chapters because I just wanted to be done. Probably not something I should say when I talk about this book to my class.
"'I can't see the point in learning to solve useless problems, or subtracting turnips from turnips, or knowing where Ethiopia is or how to spell February.' And, since no one bothered to explain otherwise, he regarded the process of seeking knowledge as the greatest waste of time of all." (p. 9).
This quote made me think a lot about how many people are taught in school. It's just a "learn this because you'll need it for next year" approach. If the things we're teaching our students are not more important than that, why do they need to know them? I try my hardest to give my students reasons to learn things other than "you'll need it next year." Which brings me to my first difficulty in teaching math this year. The 6th grade curriculum says 6th graders need to know how to find the prime factorization of numbers. Other than being helpful in other math operations, do you ever prime factor a number in real life? I can't think of anyone who uses this in their daily life except for math teachers. Do you know of a way I could make this part of the curriculum more realistic for my students?
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