There might be some people out there who have no trouble at all learning mathematics, but I am not one of them. Don’t get me wrong; I love math and spend a lot of time with it in in my work. Like most people, though, to really grasp the concepts of almost all levels of math, I have to study it and work a lot of problems. Some of the problems take a long time. Last night, Kelly and I spent about an hour working a bunch of her math problems. She is doing really well, but she was very frustrated last night with the time it took to get everything done. I do not blame her. She has a super attitude and it makes me feel bad when she has those kinds of frustrations. It made me think about what it is that we are trying to accomplish with the math that we are studying. There are really a three things we are trying to do. First, there is a certain amount of arithmetic necessary to do things like balance check books, make recipes, and that sort of thing. After that, and also very important, there is the math needed for the pursuit of an academic discipline. Even the social “sciences” require an understanding of math and statistics that is much more sophisticated than the arithmetic required for day to day life. Finally, there is value in learning the discipline required to understand math.
We had a discussion with Kelly’s cousin Julia about mathematics about a month ago. Julia had a lot of credibility in confirming a point that I had tried to make several times with both Christian and Kelly. Julia is a sophomore at Darmouth right now. She explained what a great advantage it was for her to have much of the math she will need for her degree already behind her. We will have to work pretty hard to meet our goals, but right now we are on course to get both the kids through a year of calculas by the end of their sophomore year of high school. Julia told Kelly that the more math she has out of the way when she gets to college, the more she will be able to concentrate on the subjects she really wants to pursue. It is also true that she will be able to bring her math skills to bear on those same subject even thought might be only a peripheral advantage.
At any rate, both Kelly and Christian are doing great with their math, we are on course with our plan, and the work load is not so onerous that they will get discouraged. I am going to reevaluate the work load this weekend as I do some restructuring of their entire schedule. Lorena and I both are really very pleased with their progress.