Mathematical Freedom

Students at youcubed summer camp, whose test scores improved by an average of 50% after just 18 days of mindset math, progress equivalent to 2.8 years of school, gave many reasons for their changed achievement:  the power of seeing math visually, of knowing that mistakes and struggle are good for brain growth and feeling really liberated by that.  In addition, 2 words were repeated by student after student – they felt “mathematically free”.

For many people the words mathematics and freedom just cannot be put in the same sentence.  These are the people – most people in the US – who have learned mathematics as a subject of rules and conformity.  The resources on this page explore the powerful idea of mathematical freedom and changing math for students, so that math becomes about learning instead of performing.  You can read more about these ideas in Jo’s TIME article below.