Math is stupid. I hate it.

Feb 25, 2008

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“Math is stupid. I hate it. I’m never going to need this stuff.”

I’m guilty of having uttered each of these sentences in my life. Math was always a struggle for me, much to the dismay of my father. He was a virtual human calculator who dealt with complicated math equations in his daily life as a banker/financial advisor. Like most fathers, he looked forward to his children following in his mathematical footsteps. It wasn’t to be.

Now, in my day-to-day life words are of my most-used tools. Regardless of the profession that I chose, I still come upon math every day.

In cooking: ¼ cup is smaller than 1/3 of a cup
In Shopping: How much is 35% off of $29.99?
In baking: Cook a 10 lb turkey at 45 minutes per pound…
In Decorating: How much carpet do I need to cover the floor of my living room?

As it turns out, I did need this stuff. The teachers were right.

I wish that I had paid better attention in math class. Despite being a relatively good student, the further that I got in school, the less that math made sense to me.

Thankfully, my proficiency in other subjects was apparent (hello, writer’s craft), so I could get by without having top marks in math.

But that doesn’t mean that I ever gave up trying to get better math marks. I knew my multiplication tables inside and out, thanks to flash cards and a variety of unique learning techniques I may have been able to recite my times tables, but I never really understood them.

It’s been years since my father and I butted heads about math homework but unfortunately, not much has changed. Math is still a struggle for parents and kids because many kids still don’t get math.

It’s not because the curriculum is too hard, or the teachers are ineffective. Some kids struggle with math simply because the basic concepts of math are not relevant or meaningful to the student.

And when students don’t have a fundamental understanding of the concepts, they rely on memorization to get by.

Some kids get math naturally, and others don’t. Those that don’t have to work harder to develop a better understanding of math basics. If your child is not a natural math learner, then the struggle is trying to help your child find the link to the real world that will make math meaningful and relevant. It’s a process that can take years, but its one that is well worth it, because math doesn’t end when school does. Math has practical applications in everyday life. When the light bulb finally goes on for your child and math begins to makes sense, the struggles begin to slip away…

What do you do to make math meaningful for your child? We’d love to hear from you.

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Comments(9)

#1

Brian

Feb 28, 2008

Hey, great article! Thanks for linking to my site. I'm the guy from mathmojo.

I feel your pain. I didn't learn basic math (like even long division) until I was in my thirties. Now I love the stuff.

And it's not for any of the reasons my psycho-nazi math teachers from hell gave me, either. It turns out that real math has nothing to do with what they teach in most schools.

I mean, who cares about math-for-grade-sake? Let me ask you this - What is math? What? You mean you had it for twelve years in public school and they didn't even help you understand what it is?!?!?! Ouch!

One decent definition of math is more-or-less the shorthand that your mind can best use to understand and manipulate the world.

Now who wouldn't want to be good at that? Not just quantities, either. But patterns. Like, believe it or not, you can use math to figure out when people are lying to you. If you make systems and patterns out of the things you notice, you are doing real math. The numbers are just like letters of a language.

It's too detailed to go into here, but if you check out brilliant (non-text-) books like "Playing with Infinity" by Rozsa Peter, you will get what I'm saying. Or read anything by Martin Gardner.

Check out http://mathmojo.com for more if you like. (Please excuse the shameless plug.)

You know what makes math meaningful? The fact that you brought it up in your blog-post, and that interesting people are going to come and read about it, and that they are going to try to actually communicate something meaningful to their children about it.

Hotcha!

Yours truly,

Brian Foley (a.k.a. Professor Homunculus at MathMojo )

#2

torreyasha

Feb 29, 2008

i hate math i really hate thats all we do in computer class anything we do have to be with math r numbers!!!!!!

#3

kim

Mar 3, 2008

I have a son who is 16 years old and in grade 10. He has a real problem with basic math, reading and writing. he is also visually impaired, but does have some useable sight in his left eye. I don't feel that his sight is what has held him back as he has visual aids all through school, i think no one has taken the time to teach him since he requires extra time. and now he is lost in the shuffle at school. instead of making him read or write, they did it for him because it was faster, and it has done him no good at this point.

#4

math man

Mar 4, 2008

SO YOUR SAYING that after struggling through your whole life with maths and YOU LOVE IT thats redicolous and who cares i got a level 5 in maths on my sats papers last year i hate IT!!!!!!

#5

kuba croft

Mar 4, 2008

Hey i got a level 5 in maths aswell wicked what was your english level.

#6

math man

Mar 4, 2008

level 4 rubbish

#7

Meredith, Ed Director, OLC Newmarket

Mar 18, 2008

I am the kind of person who NEVER enjoyed math, but was very good at it. All but my times tables - I never learned those, I think because I was never told why I should. Because of my dislike, I have always looked for ways to make things less 'math-like', so my feelings did not get in the way of my ability to complete things.

Looking at real-world examples is an especially good way to do this, because in the end, that is why we do math. Even something complicated like Calculus has real-world applications - that is why is was originally created, to explain something about the world in a concise way.

If you look on the internet, there are lots of concrete examples for how math describes the way the world works. My favourite example, at the moment, is a website created by CBS and Texas Instruments about the TV series NUMB3RS called WeAllUseMathEveryDay.com. It looks at the math applications from the episodes of the show, and relates them to the actual math students learn in high school. It is interesting AND fun (imagine that)!

I have worked with many math students, and most of the ones who struggle, do so because they have a block (as did I, once). Seeing math through the lens of the world, instead of the world through the lens of math, often makes a big difference in breaking down those blocks.

#8