Please read this blog by Robert Smith – Ed. Psych, Teacher, Author and keen observer of the human species. I defy you not to laugh…!

Stuff from my brain

One early autumn, I found myself at a school in rural Norfolk, watching a lesson on two-dimensional shapes. The teacher was giving key facts about particular shapes and the pupils had to work out what the shape was. She started easy with square, circle, triangle but eventually found her way to the kite, the mathematical name for a four-sided shape which has two pairs of equal, adjacent sides (yes, it looks like a kite!).

Teacher: OK, I’m thinking of a shape. It has four sides. Anyone want to guess?
Pupil: Is it a square?
Teacher: No, but good guess because a square does have four sides. Anyone else?
Pupil: Rectangle?
Teacher: No… let me tell you something else about it: it has two pairs of equal length sides.
Pupil: It could be a rectangle, Miss!
Teacher: Yes, it could be, but it could be other things too…
Pupil: I think…

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