Algebra in Preschool

ExchangeEveryDay has spotlighted numerous stories on the dangers of pushing academics down into the early years, and other stories about children spending too much time in front of screens instead of being outdoors. Now I am sharing a story from the Quartz website that seemingly advocates the opposite of these things. The article, "The Video Game That Teaches Algebra to 4-Year-Olds," tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Huyh, a Vietnamese Frenchman living in Oslo who was frustrated with how schools have turned into prisons ("Your brain is dead when you're in prison. You don't want to be there.")

So he invented a game called DragonBox that leads children through a series of levels that starts with moving lizards, fish and tomatoes out of the reach of a hungry dragon. However, by level 100 the children have been engaged in addition, multiplication, division and fractions -- "all without fanfare or explanations."

"By games end, at level 100 you've moved seamlessly, baby step by baby step, from a cute baby dragon eating a spiky two-headed lizard to this: '2 over X plus d over e equals x,' which you solve, fearlessly and perhaps even a bit impatiently, in exactly 14 steps. You are 4 years old."

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