Teaching Math to the Unaccountable - Page 2
© Joan Archer
In ninth grade, I was bussed to North Omaha, and since homework was a disaster with the bussed crowd, we had little math folders that we had to work our way through IN CLASS. Fortunately for me, they were very well written, and started everyone at the same basic level. By tenth grade, I had begun to catch on, and I began to see that math can be an enjoyable activity, as well as a useful tool. However, I only really learned to count change quickly because The Beloved One was so good at it (Mr. Exact Change Man) that I got better out of sheer competitiveness.
If you think it is silly to be so afraid of math, consider how most of us are introduced to it. "He can't even add two and two!" is a popular saying, indicating the person the speaker is speaking about is not very bright. "How do you figure that?" we might say, when we're the one in the dark. "I can put two and two together!" we say, when our suspicions about someone are coming to fruition. Think about how these things sound to a child, and you will begin to see why math is such a sensitive topic with us human beings.
For many children, math has the aura of being a competitive sport in which they are continuously being chosen last for a side. What advantage homeschoolers have in this arena! There is no tearful trips to the blackboard to reveal publicly that you are an incompetent person who shouldn't even be allowed to breathe; there is no being shoved into classes too difficult for you to master; and there is no teacher giving you that exasperated look that makes you feel like you are lower than a worm when you are in fifth grade and still can't master your fives timestables.
For my sons, math has been mostly a repitition of math facts, over and over until they can practically quote them in their sleep. For Jasper, this has included having to use manipulatives to illustrate graphically what three times ten equals. We have also had to skip chapters of our math texts, and we have returned to those chapters later on when the student has finally matured enough mathematically to make those areas much easier to learn. This is where the flexibility of homeschool really comes in handy-the lessons wait until the student is ready.
