About Jamie York Academy
Jamie York, author and Waldorf math educator, created the Making Math Meaningful™ series as a developmentally-based math curriculum that strengthens skills, mathematical thinking and sparks enthusiasm for learning.
Jamie York Academy uses our Making Math Meaningful™ curriculum in the math courses, as well as thoughtful, in-depth, discovery-based science, humanities and language arts courses. We develop enthusiasm for learning and encourage collaborative learning and human interaction.
Quick LInks
Jamie York Academy grew from decades of successful math teaching using a carefully crafted and innovative curriculum.
Our experienced, dedicated teachers and tutors bring the highest level of instruction to Jamie York Academy.
Jamie York’s Meaningful Math
Our math curriculum
- is developmentally appropriate
- engages and challenges students
- promotes deep and creative thinking
- includes historical context
Look through our high school and middle school website pages to learn more about our offerings and our philosophy.
We learn math best when we get confused and then work through that confusion. And in the process, we (hopefully) ask good questions, and (necessarily) make lots of mistakes. We can struggle and get frustrated. But never get discouraged! Get determined! We learn much about life by learning math. I could make math easy, but then we would miss out on the most important part of the process. Math is life!
-Jamie York
Middle School Math Curriculum
Far too often in middle school (grades 6-8), schools treat math as if the central purpose is to “win” the race to get ahead. Massive textbooks, onerous homework assignments, an enormous list of topics to get through by the end of the year. No time for discovery. No time for thinking. Superficial learning. ‘Do what the teacher told you, otherwise you will fall behind.’ Too much fear.
We believe that math skills are important, but developing the students’ mathematical thinking capacities is just as important.
Rather than having overwhelming textbooks that are designed to slog through the endless list of skills, we believe that it’s still up to the teacher to inspire the students with the wonders of real mathematics.
High School Math Curriculum
It should be that students enter high school at their peak interest in mathematics. This is the time that their ability to think mathematically is growing the fastest. Developmentally speaking, 9th grade is the best time for students to really hone their algebra skills. Then, in contrast, 10th grade is a fantastic time for students to go deeper with their thinking, with studies like: Greek geometry (how did Archimedes figure out pi?), the origins of trigonometry, sequences and series, and the relationship between math and music.
Yes, even though it’s high school, we still believe there’s more to math than cranking through lots of skills. Math should be engaging. Math should be soul-expanding (not soul-crushing). Math should be an adventure!
Making Math Meaningful™ Books
You can find the Making Math Meaningful™ book series here or on the Jamie York Press website.
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