I’m not all that bad at math myself. I can get by. But my mom, the banker, is completely math illiterate. To a frightening degree. She went back to school a few years ago to finish her degree, and had to take a basic level math course for her GE. And she was completely, utterly hopeless. I don’t mean, “can’t solve for X,” I mean, “can’t figure out how negative numbers work.” Five minus seven absolutely stumped her. I finally had to draw out a number line, like in third grade, so she could have something to visualize. “Start at the five, and count backwards seven spaces” sort of thing. And she’s by no means stupid or incompetent. About six months ago, she was headhunted into a senior management position at a very prestigious private banking institute, despite the crappy economy. She just can’t do numbers. Which apparently isn’t the handicap you’d expect it to be in the banking industry.
Come to think of it, that might explain a few things about the current state of the economy…
I got all of my necessary math credit for college out of the way my freshman year by taking HTML Programming and Desktop Publishing. I got A’s in both.
Math does not comes easily to me, and never has. I can do basic things like addition and subtraction just fine, and multiply and divide and such. I cannot do much beyond single digit numbers in my head though, and I am amazed by people who have caculators in their brains. If it involves carrying the one, I lose my place without writing it down. Basic algebra is ok, but functions make me weep.
I still acknowledge that math is an important skill to have, especially when it comes to handling your own money. I worked retail long enough to be astounded that people could not calculate a %10 discount, for example.
I do think many people convince themselves they suck at math, but I know it is a frustrating and often confusing subject for me. Oh well, what I lack in math skills I make up for in reading and English!
I have known many very intelligent people who couldn’t do math. I think the key is the kind of teaching. It’s common to get stuck at a certain point. If the student doesn’t get past that point, he may never learn any more math.
My younger daughter claimed to hate math, but with two mathematicians as parents, she never got stuck. Although she never liked it, she became quite good at it.
Unfortunately, some of today’s experimental teaching methods are utterly stupid. If your child gets stuck in one, it behooves you to provide whatever support is needed.
Thanks, Hobie. I do understand the theoretical form of the equation, but what I find difficult is actually remembering it when a is a number and f is sin or something. That’s one of five transformations of graphs I have to retain in my head, and that’s the only one I can really remember.
So, to clarify - with y=a(f)x, if we change that to say, y=2sin(x), does that mean that the curve starts at (0,0), but then instead of going up to the point (90,1) the curve now reaches its peak at (90,2), and equally, the curve remains at (180,0) but goes down to (270, -2)?
I think part of the problem is that people don’t like or get maths for a bit at school, and obviously then forget it all. But when someone explains it to them, they jump too far ahead.
If someone doesn’t understand negative numbers, they will get a kick out of it if someone explains it and they get it. But explanations of fractions or simple equations will only reinforce it.
If you’re teaching someone like this, yes, they can grasp complex numbers, which are cool, but they’d get more out of learning about really simple things.
gobear is right. I’m appallingly bad when it comes to statistics and higher math.
Basic algebra as it relates to percentages, balancing a checkbook, and other day to day uses that are essential aren’t that difficult, and are obscufcated by teachers who make the process of learning so laboriously dry that students feel it is their failing.
I’m also a math lover, and always have been. For some reason I majored in English in college and graduate school, and frequently found colleagues staring at me in amazement when I’d do something as simple as figuring out a tip and how to split up a bill in a restaurant. I don’t really have any advice for mathphobes, because honestly I’ve never experienced it; I can’t imagine fearing math.
For mathphiles, though, I recommend Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos. He wrote a few other books as well, but that one was the most fun, I thought. And the math in it isn’t difficult; you don’t have to be a mad scientist to understand it.
I have dyscalculia – I transpose digits when I look at numbers, cannot follow directions (like the driving kind) that deal with distances, have no sense of time or temporal memory, basically every symptom of dyscalculia right down the line. I hate math with a passion. I failed college statistics once and college algebra twice before I got a B- in a statistics-for-dummies course that fulfilled my only college math requirement. I hated every second of it.
I’m not any good with my checkbook. I just check my balance at the ATM every few days and double check my bank statements for irregularities, but other than that I’ve never been able to maintain a checkbook. Even with Quicken.
Some people can’t do math, beyond simple addition/subtraction/multiplying/dividing. I can figure out a tip by always paying 20% – take 1/10 of the total and double that. Other than that, I find that math has no use or bearing in my life. Thank God for that.
I would bet money that no one in all her elementary days ever bothered to do anything like that. If you don’t develop those basic ideas, then you are sunk when it comes to the more complicated things.
Ok, I’m not that bad. I can figure tips, calculate percentages, work with fractions, solve for x (for simple equations). When I say I’m bad at math, I mean all the crap we had to take for school, not simple, every-day, life-skills math.
I’m another one with dsycalculia, which is seldom diagnosed: mine was only discovered when my (slight) dsylexia was investigated at a fairly late age. I’d honestly find it extremely difficult, for example, to add 26 to 47 without writing it down. Many of the math haters may have a numbers-based learning dificulty, it’s not always the teaching. Archimedes could’ve taught me maths til it came out of my butt and I’d still be writing my twos and fives back to front. I manage when it comes to life-skills mathematics but only because I also have a calculator. I also have one on my cellphone which is in constant use.
I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment it’s not what you are, it’s how you’re taught that has the major impact on a given individual’s math ability. Having said that, in my experience as a teacher I have come to accept that there are people who either are just no good at it or who simply aren’t responding to my methods.
As a point of interest, there are very few topics I teach (for a variety of levels, generally GCSE and up) where I don’t use the number line. I love the number line, it is the most underused of teaching tools and so damn effective too
Problem is, in real life, I have never had any use of any math I learned efter 7th grade. Basic equations, percentages, interest rates, basic geometry.
I took calculus almost 25 years ago and remember nil. So I think yes, the schools are to blame, for teaching stuff that’s not percieved as relevant and moving along to the next abstract concept before the first has had time to sink in - all in preparation for a higher education few people will persue.
So I think that maybe the way Pepperlandgirl got around it was pretty good.
Tell that to the college math professor who told me that I was psychologically unsound because I was unable to figure out the math.
Asimov? Not as in Isaac, the sci fi writer?
Actually, I’m good at finances, including the budgeting for big projects. It’s when math become fuzzy and starts involving innocent letters in it’s evil plot that I start getting a headache and start freaking out.
Straight forward addition and subtraction is one thing, but algebra can bring me to tears.
Yes, him. He wrote on a multitude of subjects: etymology, physics, history, Shakespeare, the Bible, Milton, biology, and many others.
If you’ve ever worked out the percent markdown at a sale, congrats, you just did algebra. If you’ve ever had to figure out the proportion of ingredients to make a dish for a lot of people at a pot luck, you’ve done algebra. It really isn’t that hard, you jist need to get over your fear.
I think they need a new approach to teaching math. If they’d teach it based on real-world stuff, people might think it was more useful and be able to apply it more. I was fine with algebra, but pre-calc totally messed up my mind.
