Good news, parents and teachers…according to Bill Carey, every student is a math person. But today’s schools often rob students of their natural curiosity and they end up experiencing math as something incoherent and frustrating. Carey shares the fascinating and somewhat shocking history of mathematics and encourages educators to shape the curriculum in a way that ignites the mathematical curiosity of students. Listen in for practical advice for the classroom and some genuinely good mathematical word problems to spark interest. Be encouraged when some students declare from the get-go that they are not math people. Get equipped to change their minds!

Bill Carey attended the University of Virginia where he studied the classics focusing on Latin. Fresh from college, he joined the Ad Fontes faculty where he taught Latin, calculus, formal logic, physics, and (for a few months) senior thesis. After five years of teaching, Mr. Carey took a sabbatical writing computer programs for a defense contractor to better understand how adults think about and use mathematics. Drawn back to the classroom, Bill is in his fourth year of his second tour at Ad Fontes and second year as Dean of Instruction. He is joyfully married to Maren Carey, also a teacher, and attends Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Haymarket, Virginia.