Teaching Math to the Unaccountable
Before we get started on this article, I need some information, and I need it right now! I keep getting offers for obscene websites in my e-mail! I am, of course, offended by this, but when I try to send the site a notice that I do not want any more of their e-mails, the address comes back as invalid. I have written to the postmaster of my email account, but nothing seems to be done about this! I feel like Sister Mary Elephant here, begging for "Quiet!". Have any of you ever had this problem, and if so, what have you done about it?
Now on to the issues at hand-how to teach Mathematics, especially when you (like me) are not particularly gifted mathematically, not interested in being mathematically gifted, and have to teach yourself to teach your little darlings how to do math. One of my favorite mathematical quotes is from Barbie, "Math is hard!" However, do remember what happened to her-that model got discontinued.
It is best to begin talking to your child at an early age about math and numbers. Take a leaf out of Maria Montessori's book, and help your child by counting how many eggs you are using for breakfast, or how many carrots you need to prepare for dinner. This everyday usage of numbers will help your child to learn that numbers and maths are part of everyone's life, every day, and not some huge, mysterious process only performed at the bidding of a teacher. This process wards off the bane of all non-math people, the Math Phobia.
I am a recovering Math Phobic. I suffered greatly from this menace to gradeschoolers every where. However, I suffered in silence, because to admit I could not do even basic math facts by third and fourth (even fifth) grades was to admit I was stupid, uneducable, out of the loop, and just plain a pox on general society. It was not fun. I just didn't get it.
My teachers did not work with me on math, preferring instead to put me in the cloak hall with a fellow student who was good at math, and have that person have to teach me how to do my work. I think they believed it was just laziness or hatefulness on my part, and chose to have me peer-pressured out of it. Needless to say, I spent quite a few years being absolutely miserable, as well as humiliated by my peers for my lack of mathematical ability. My mother felt so sorry for me, that she did all of my math schoolwork in seventh and eighth grades. My math teacher, the boy's gym coach, never noticed that my handwriting on my homework was extremely different from my daily handwriting, so I got by. I still was lost when it came to buying something (figuring my change was a nightmare, and led to many embarrassing incidents with cashiers).
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