Posts tagged teachers

Edward Khoo is a teacher who enjoys teaching math at his local high school and spends most of his time apart from teaching with his cute 5 year old kid. Edward writes about technology news and updates on his blog. He asked to post this essay to the Natural Math blogs to reach its readers. I really like the multiple solutions example. What do you think?

Math is a subject that many struggle with at school. In fact, I’m sure a big proportion of us would admit to saying “I hate math!” at some point in a frustrated homework session. But there are basic skills that you can draw from math that do matter. And they’re not necessarily the same as those that teachers may give to their struggling students. Whatever they say, being less than fully familiar with Pythagorean theory is not going to condemn you to stacking shelves at the mall. And having trouble with multiplication tables isn’t going to prevent you from shopping at those very same malls.

Neither does having a shaky grasp on the intricacies of computer logic stop you from surfing the internet. When teachers wield such threats over their charges, they’re just using them as blunt tools for bludgeoning students – to get them moving on with the nitty-gritty in their math class. But put those false concerns aside. Then dig a little deeper and you’ll see that math can give your child, and you, the means to ease your way through some real-life problems – both expected and surprising.

The most obvious things that math does for your child is to make them familiar with numbers. But what good math teaching should also do is to go that step further, and make your kid confident with numbers. That doesn’t mean turning them into miniature calculators, able to do long division in their head. It means helping kids to understand that numbers are not scary.

It is the fear of numbers, often created by bad teaching experiences at an early age, which stick through to adulthood – and can make many everyday situations awkward and difficult. If you’re scared of numbers, you might not want to tip after a meal, in case you get the amount wrong. You might end up on the wrong side of a bank loan, because you never did understand how to use percentages. So losing that fear is important, to navigate through life with confidence.

An example of that ‘number confidence’ is dealing with, say, a sales tax at 20% – so that you know how to work out the dollar and cent amount, without freezing. A big problem with math as it’s often taught is that most math problems are presented as only having one solution. If you don’t get that solution, after some gentle hammering to get it into your brain, the bad teachers move on. The good teachers won’t bow out that easily – they’ll try and place a number of tools into your hand, and spend time funding the one that fits you comfortably.

So 20% of $125 isn’t some complex equation – maybe it’s shifting the decimal place along twice, to give $1.25, and then times-sing by 20. Or maybe it’s looking at a fifth of $125; or how many times does 5 go into $125; or twice a tenth of $125. Eventually one of these will click with a pupil– and with a little practice, they’ll have cracked that fear of percentages.

That approach, of trying a method out, failing, and then changing tack until it slips into place – is a really valuable life skill. It’s something a child can take with them, and apply to lots of problems in their life, both as a child and later as an adult: don’t give up, be patient, and find what works for you. So math also teaches kids to problem-solve: learning to step back from an issue, break it down into its component pieces, and then trying out solutions.

Then there’s another side to math which goes beyond those basic questions of numeracy, and onto the issue of understanding the numbers pumped out by the media and politicians. This is a huge life skill, one that underpins our ability to take part in the debates about where our world is going. And as has often been pointed out, in relation to such numbers, there are lies, damned lies and statistics. It is the skill of knowing what politicians and the media are trying to say, through the numbers they quote, that makes you a properly engaged citizen.

So when you are told that the risks of skin cancer, from overuse of tanning salons, has gone up 50%, a strong math skill would tell you what this means. You’d be asking – “well if it’s gone up by half, what was it before, and what is it now?” Compare that to, “holy, molely, half of sun-bed users are going to die of cancer!” That is why math matters to you and your child – without it, you can make bad decisions that can seriously affect your life.