I love the idea of skepticism conferences. I love the idea of lots of individuals getting together to talk about science communication and critical thinking. I’ve always been hesitant to actually attend such a conference, however, because while it’s always really easy to spot the headlining speakers—Dawkins, Hitchens, Penn & Teller, Watson, Plait, et al.—those people have never really motivated me to take a few days off from work/school, hop on a plane, and fly (in many cases) halfway across the country. I learn a lot by reading their respective blogs and books, but I’ve never been convinced that the hassle involved in pausing my life to go to a conference was truly worth the effort—particularly when, after the fact, people are left talking more about #gelatogate than anything they really learned from the event. Socializing with other skeptics is important, but so are my studies. Convince me that I’ll learn more at Convention X than I will in my classes back home.

I love this speech by Hemant Mehta, though, and a part of me wishes that I’d taken the time (and money!) necessary to head out to Skepticon IV this month. In this 50-minute video, Mehta outlines the problems with math education in the United States. A sample, from his final talking point:

“I was going to be a doctor, and I went to med school for a year—and, that’s a rigorous line of classes, and it’s a really tough year to do. I didn’t like it. I left. And, then, I went into math education, which, to be honest with you? Not that difficult, in comparison. But, the problem is, they didn’t actually teach me how to be a better teacher—or, a teacher. They taught me ‘here’s how you write a lesson plan,’ ‘here’s how you find the standards,’ and ‘here’s how you adhere to the standards.’ Nothing in there is ‘How do you teach this effectively?’ ‘How do you teach kids how to really love this subject?’ ‘Cause you can’t really evaluate that objectively.”

“They need to know how to think in different ways. Almost every math question—there’s no one right way to get to the answer. There’s probably a few different things you can do, and they need to learn how to question what they hear. Just ‘cause I say it’s true—they need to see me prove it before they should accept it.”

I read Hemant’s blog on occasion, but I’d love to meet him face-to-face. Come visit Houston, man!