Math + Rap = Fun

When my son was an eighth-grader in a NY suburban school district, he almost impoded as a student -- all because of math.

He just didn't get the infamous New york State-required Math A and Math B courses, was in serious danger of failing math (or worse, of giving up entirely), and our home became littered with math guides and the remains of various tutors.

He took after his parents, who weren't the best math students either. My only memory of math class in middle school and high school, in fact, is that of being bored nearly to tears by an endless line of aging male teachers who hated their jobs.

Both my son and I could have used someone like D.J. Duey to teach us math.

Now a media celebrity, Duey was a substitute teacher in Michigan when he realized his math students just weren't getting it. So he began to write his own raps about math, consulting with other teachers to determine the best way to combine rap, music, video, math and science into something a bit easier to digest than a textbook full of numbers and formulas

Since releasing his first rap, Duey has released a complete album, "Class Dis-Missed," which includes 17 songs that translate some of the most difficult subjects to teach and understand, but in a fun way.

The reaction to Duey from the teaching community, students and the media, has been overwhelmingly positive and his music videos, can be seen on YouTube and his own website. His fractions video here, one of my personal favorites, has been viewed more than 16,000 times and counting.

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