Day 912 of 1000
I am writing this post for fellow Math aficionado, Math educator, and Sonlight blogger, Luke Holzmann. I am not sure if he has seen it yet, but Kelly found a great article on math and math learning titled How I Faced My Fears and Learned to be Good at Math by a guy named Matt Waite. It makes many of us sad when we hear people say they hate math. The article is by and about one of those guys. The difference is that he had an epiphany as a professor of Journalism in his mid-thirties and started over with Intermediate Algebra. He is now in the middle of his first Calculus class. Here is his epiphany:
The only advantage I have over my classmates? I know exactly how to fail at math: Don’t put any effort in. Blow it off. Do something else. A glass of wine and a rerun of Big Bang Theory kicks the crap out of applications of extrema using derivatives, even if you hate wine and loathe Big Bang Theory.
But that’s the lesson I’ve learned: The difference between good at math and bad at math is hard work. It’s trying. It’s trying hard. It’s trying harder than you’ve ever tried before. That’s it.
It is all true. There is a price to pay if you want to learn math, but it is worth it. You can feel the joy of his accomplishment in the article. If you are a math hater please read the article.
Other posts about our math experience:
- Why we switched from Singapore Math to Teaching Textbooks
- Precalculus: Teaching Textbooks or Thinkwell?
- Our Homeschool Story: What Kind of Homeschool Did We Want to Be? (5.5) Math
- Math Help: What to do when Thinkwell and Teaching Textbooks explanations are not enough
Betty Blonde #75 – 10/29/2008
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.
Great article! I had not seen it. I really appreciate my bloggy friends — like you — who find this amazing stuff and share it [smile].
Yes, saying “I hate math” is a cop-out. I believe it’s possible to hate math at the moment. But that does not have to stop you from learning it. I also happen to believe that finding a new approach to math instruction could make it so you actually find math understandable and enjoyable [cough “MathTacular” cough]. I crashed at Pre-Algebra because the math program I was using bored me to death. We switched math programs and I rocketed ahead again.
Yes, if you work hard and stick to things, you can push through. But it can take time. And it can be hard. I didn’t struggle with math, but I did struggle with reading. I was, literally, “bad at reading.” It took years of diligent work and patience (on the part of my parents) before I “got it.” Actually, I only became proficient in reading after college.
For those who dislike math and for whom math does not “come naturally,” please take encouragement from the article. It’s not saying that if you just put your nose to the grindstone you’ll suddenly be amazing at math and find it the most lovely thing in the world. My wife shared a post from jezebel.com (NB: f-bomb warning + you know jezebel.com is the best place to learn about education [grin]) that links to the neurological effects of math anxiety.
Honestly, I’m guessing there’s no such thing as “math anxiety.” I think we can all experience anxiety about any subject. My hypothesis is that math is not in a special category; we can experience anxiety about spelling or reading or art, etc. Depending on our experiences, these feelings can be reinforced. I’m currently reading Gladwell’s David and Goliath and it makes great points about this. Feeling like you don’t measure up to your classmates in a subject makes you less likely to complete your studies. Fascinating stuff, but not surprising at all.
Okay, sorry for writing a blog post as a comment. You inspired me [smile]. And perhaps I’ll turn this into a post of my own…
Thank you, again, for sharing this with me! Very good reminders and an excellent encouragement for life-long learning.
~Luke
Wow! Thanks for the great comment Luke. I was kind of hoping you would take a stab at this and do a post of your own. I am a little bit of a poser in this arena now as my kids are almost done and I think this is a HUGE topic for your reader base. I plan to write more about this later–I had a discussion about it with the head of the architecture school at Tulane University. He had some amazing things to say.
I feel like a poser myself [smile]. I think I’ve helped produce a bunch of great math materials, but I was the technical guy who helped offer suggestions when we got down to discussing the presentation. Thankfully, the three of us involved in the videos (Justin, Amber, and I) all approach math slightly differently. This made it easier for us to see the problems of presenting a topic in just one particular way. But I’m not a math expert!
I look forward to hearing more about what you’ve been discussing in future posts! Off to write my own [smile].
~Luke
Natalie
good stuff.
Why “push through”, why even try ? If math is not your bag it is a pointless effort.
Why do anything. It is all pointless.