13/07/2017
Do You Speak Math?
Let's face it. Math is a foreign language...kind of like Italian, French, or speaking with someone from Arkansas. :o) When someone who is proficient in math is rattling off a problem, those of us who don't speak the language are looking around like, “Wait, what???”
The funny thing about math is the simplicity of it, and yet it is quite complex if you don't speak the language. For people in “their right mind” it is one of the most frustrating things to comprehend. I am not sure why some people are wired to get it and the rest of us are at their mercy, but thank God for CPAs, calculators, and Google. That sounds like a line from a Country Western song, doesn't it? LOL.
The only way I made it through Algebra and Geometry was to get some tutoring. I remember asking the teacher to please help me understand it. Fortunately, he had patience and compassion on me and helped me get through those courses. I never had to take Trig or other advanced math courses, but I do have a soft spot in my heart now when I am trying to teach kids and they give me that deer in the headlights look. I understand how frustrating it can be.
If you teach math, I want to take my hat off, get on one knee, and acknowledge that you are one of the “chosen ones.” Seriously, I wish I had that gift. My advice to kids and parents is that kids have to learn the basics. I am disturbed by the number of kids who don't even know the basic tables and can't tell you what 4 x 2 is without writing it down.
If you are a parent with a kid who is math challenged, my advice is pretty simple:
Get them a tutor or tutor them yourself if you have the ability. Sadly, too many parents these days can't help their kids because they don't know how to do it themselves, much less teach their kids how to do it. Perhaps you can learn it together. Just a thought.
Zdroj: LinkeIn
