To the majority of adults, the thought of walking into a calculus classroom evokes memories of rigid desks aligned in straight rows, endless homework problems, and the terror associated with how to pass the next math test. When asked about their favorite subject in school, most students, present and past, will not be heard responding, “Math.”
Now take a walk into Baylor math teacher Dr. Dan Kennedy’s classroom. You will not find students sitting in rapt attention trying to follow the words of the lecturing teacher standing formally at the front of the class. Instead, you will discover students huddled in pairs of animated conversation, collaborating over the problem-of-the-day, plunging with gusto into the latest mathematical question placed before them.
What puts this classroom on the cutting edge of education? Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Dr. Kennedy enjoyed math in high school, and as an undergraduate at Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, it felt natural to become a math major. One day, a professor said to him, “It’s time to look at graduate schools!” This conversation was to change the course of his life.
Dr. Kennedy had not considered this next step, but a seed was planted of what was to become a distinguished and delightful career for the young scholar. Graduate school led him to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Working as a teaching assistant, he knew that he wanted to teach, and he looked initially at college teaching positions. An advisor told him, “Dan, you need to find a position in a good prep school. That’s where the first-rate teaching is happening. A certain temperament is essential to teach high school; you’ve got it.”
By the early seventies, Dr. Kennedy had earned his Ph.D. in mathematics, and after a visit to Baylor School’s campus on the advice of a professor who knew the school’s reputation, he was sold. Thirty-four years later, Dan Kennedy is both an icon on his campus and a national leader in the field of high school mathematics. He teaches upper school classes in calculus, pre-calculus and finite math, and a course including applications to business and the social sciences.
Dr. Kennedy’s mathematical reach has extended well beyond the classroom. He has served on the national Advanced Placement Math Committee, working on grading, test development, and assessment. Dan served on the AP committee during the change in calculus to require graphing calculator usage. He has chaired the committee and now serves as an AP consultant. Acknowledging the entertainment streak that runs in his family, he states that the goal in his popular presentations is to both teach and amuse his audience.
Years ago, when the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics began to discuss classroom reform, Dr. Kennedy stepped up to the plate. He read the research and soon discovered that the traditional math class in which the teacher lectures from the front of the classroom was no longer the most effective way to teach math. The teacher should not perform, but rather be the model to promote problem-solving and thinking skills. Dan knew that he must strengthen the questions that he asked, allowing students to learn to uncover answers for themselves. As Baylor began its discussions of becoming a coeducational institution, Dr. Kennedy knew that the collaborative classroom was the direction in which he must move. He knew that he must give students the model to learn to collaborate. Thus Dr. Kennedy could give his students skills to take into the working world which would last a lifetime.
Outside the classroom, Dr. Kennedy has varied interests connected to math. During the second season of the CBS TV show NUMB3RS, he wrote activities that the network could place on its website for teachers to download, with topics linked to each Friday’s show. He was asked to write some chapters for a new edition of a math textbook, was given more chapters, and suddenly found his name included as author for math texts used nationwide for calculus, pre-calculus, Algebra I and II, and geometry courses. Dan states with pleasure, “Textbooks are the path by which to get your ideas out into the world!”
Not surprisingly, Dan enjoys playing word games, such as computer Scrabble, and he loves to work cryptic crossword puzzles. For many years, he has worked with Camp Pathfinder in Canada; he is the creator of their famous annual treasure hunts. He is a marvelous dessert chef, and he enjoys traveling to Ireland with his sister and friends most summers. Many people in the Chattanooga community know Dan as the “Voice of the Red Raiders” for Baylor football and basketball.
Decades of math scholars are lucky to have been inspired by Dr. Dan Kennedy’s teaching; no doubt many more will enjoy mining the mathematical questions and harvesting high-level answers for years to come; no doubt many more will learn skills that will last a lifetime.