I loathe math. I was ok in but it just never ever interested me. I had to work hard in the subject at times but I did quite well, despite the fact that I still can’t grasp word problems. I never got them despite spending every day after school with my math teacher. After a while I just gave up- mostly because I didn’t care and didn’t like math. I would rather have been reading or studying my French.
The last math class I took was AP Calculus in high school. I still don’t know how I passed the test but it got me out of taking one of the 2 math courses I was required to take in college. I took Music Theory for the other. Why? Music is all math based. Musicians actually tend to be rather good mathematicians because of this. At least I understood the theory because it was put in a context I could understand. I’m no great musician though.
Actually, I faced just the opposite while growing up. That is that I was constantly brainwashed by my parents (who otherwise are WONDERFUL people, they just had a blind spot with math), that if I didn’t “get it” that I’d be a failure in life and everything else. Don’t get me wrong, I had a good childhood, but regarding school? The focus was “math is God”.
Basically what I got out of it was that if I didn’t learn math, I’d pretty much end up and unloved bag lady with 60 cats and no future.
They would do things like pop quizzes and flash cards, starting when I was in 1st and second grade and all the way up til jr high. They’d quiz me in the car on the way to someplace that might have been fun were it not for the constant “math lessons”.
Quick now!!! (snap snap of fingers by dad), what’s 27+89???
What’s 7x12??? Hurry, do it in your head!!! You’ve got to have math!!!
By the time I got to Jr. High, I was a nervous wreck where math was concerned, I’d flunked or gotten D’s in almost every class that was math oriented (but if a class had reading, I did well).
By some miracle, my cousin caught wind of my math phobia and helped me break down adding and subtracting into “chunks” like someone else in this thread mentioned. That helped a lot.
And to ** Kabbes**, sorry I missed the original question by whoever it was that asked it of you, I only saw two one where someone asked about the question, and your putty reference, and you have to understand, to a person like me, NEITHER of them seemed “simple”.
I try to be really really patient when I’m teaching beginning dancers with two left feet that can’t even get a cha-cha count, I liken it to the deadly fear I feel when faced with a math Q. Just because it’s natural to me, doesn’t mean I should be condescending, impatient or assume that they are “clumsy” if they aren’t getting it.
As an instructor I believe that if the student doesn’t understand what you are telling them, it’s the TEACHER, not the student. You have to get it across in THEIR language, not yours, no matter how “simple” it may seem to you.
I have just never had anyone who could break it down for me so that I had that math “Aha” moment.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Hobie the One *
[Take any image. Look at it and see what is exactly in the center vertically. Got that? Okay, now resize the image so that it is still as wide as it used to be but is now twice as tall. Is what was in the center still in the center? Is everything still as wide as it was? Yup. What you have done is “scale” the image in the vertical (y) direction by a factor of 2 (it’s twice as tall).
QUOTE]
Well, I know with the right teacher, I’d eventually be able to understand it.
But you know what’s weird? My first thought is “silly putty”? No way, it wouldn’t stretch evenly and therefore the answer wouldn’t be right at the end.
Perhaps it’s the visual. One of the hardest things I had “getting” (I got a C in 107 College Algebra, but only with the help of my geek boyfriend and a teacher that allowed us to do all but the final test as homework), was the equations that you do with “graphing” (is that the correct term?).
But strangely enough, the section with (I can’t remember what they’re called now) where numbers are stacked in squares? Almost looks like a large tic-tac-toe, only with numbers? For some reason THOSE seemed to sink pretty well(at the time, of course I never used them after the math class, so have forgotten it).
Someone else mentioned being able to whiz through higher math, but not being able to make change well. What’s strange is that I memorized different problems and the answers so as to avoid having to figure them when I was in school (I was the girl who could throw her french dialogs in her locker for 2 weeks and then take 5 minutes before the test and do them word perfect).
If not for an excellent memory, I probably wouldn’t have passed any math classes.
Yea, my worst (and last) math teacher was just AWFUL. He’d explain these complicated concepts, glossing over half the steps, then when you’d ask him to explain it in more detail, he’d repeat what he’d just said, only slightly louder and slower. I just gave up.
I’m currently waiting on whatever grade I got from that remedial math class I got stuck in this semester. Before I took it, I was the most irritating kind of mathphobe - I even spent three Saturdays in a row getting screened for discalculia (which I don’t have.) But if this class taught me anything, it’s that maths are really not as scary as they look. <small>What’s much scarier is the education majors who are currently failing the exact remedial class they plan to teach someday.</small>
I for one am glad I don’t have to deal with math classes anymore. Maybe I’ll look at math again someday, but not now.
Actually, I’m an English major and somebody said that to me today. Same university, and everything. Maybe it was the writing concentration I’m in that brought around the reaction “Oh, I could NEVER do that. I can’t even write a paragraph!”
I used to get that a lot. My Freshman year in college, I asked a guy what he was majoring in, and he said “Molecular biology.” I was hugely impressed. I’d just gotten out of high school, where science classes were a chore to be avoided at all costs, and the idea of someone voluntarily studying biology was intimidating. He asked me what I was studying, and I timidly replied, “English lit.” The guy’s eyes got big as saucer plates and he actually took a step backwards, “Wow, you must be REALLY smart!” Well, I wasn’t about to disagree with him, but really. I’m just studying English. You know, the langauge we’ve both been speaking for our entire lives? It’s not that impressive.
CanvasShoes, for the record, I was not the one who came up with the silly putty analogy. Nor was I the one specifically whom the question was asked of – in fact it was a question that was thrown out to a general audience. I was just explaining that the silly putty analogy was not necessarily intended for you.
If you had a fairly experienced dancer in your class, would you still attempt to teach them right from the basics? Or would you assume some level of prior knowledge?
All I’m saying is that it is not always appropriate to pitch explanations at the lowest common demoninator of anyone who might happen to overhear.
It strikes me that with your misunderstanding of who was asking what of whom and with your admittance that you somehow missed the original question completely (what did you think people were answering?) you haven’t actually been following this thread that closely at all. That’s fine and dandy but its a bit rude to try to take people to task for something they haven’t done when you haven’t even made the attempt to understand the context of what they have done.
Well I’m a film student, and I can’t tell you how many times someone has said “Why would I want to think about movies? They are just entertainment”. They tell me that there are no social implications to movies. They say that they don’t mean anything- they are all just brain candy. They say I ought to be doing something “real”. They accuse me of only likeing foreign and artsy films because I’m eliteist. Heck, one of the biggest complaints the teacher of the introduction to film studies class faces is “I hate this class because it ruined movies for me by making me think about them”.
I don’t think I have a math phobia, but I didn’t enjoy a lot of the math classes I had to take (though I toughed it out and got through them-- didn’t think that something being difficult was an excuse to be ignorant). Algebra was a snap, geometry was tough but I got by. Calculus was a slap in the face every time I had to open that book and lectures were almost hallucinatory in their horrific-ness. I did everything I could to help myself, but my mind just didn’t/doesn’t bend that way-- I can’t play chess because I’m stymied by too many possiblities, strategy-wise. It’s like I can’t choose the next step because the last step isn’t giving me any clues. Does this sound familiar to any one or am I a lonely freak?
My GOODNESS! I wasn’t taking anyone to task at all. You’re making some pretty broad assumptions based on parts of my posts that weren’t directed at you.
I’ve read the thread, I just somehow missed the original question that you answered, I only saw the request for clarification, and then your “clarification”. And I was merely using that as an example of how people who supposedly “teach” do it in such a way that is difficult for mathphobics.
I wasn’t saying “AHA! kabbes you evil math genious you”, when I used my dance analogy, it’s just that you got so up in arms and condescending with your first reply to me. Maybe you could have asked me first to see if I meant it the way you apparently took it, before you get so upset?
At any rate, if you’d seen me say it in person (damn this media sometimes) you would have seen a perplexed, but friendly face, NOT an angry attack as you seem to think happened.
No you’re not alone, parts of my petroleum science classes had some really painful math and chemistry in them. I remember being so fogged after a class or lab that I’d go out in my car and crank up Metallica just to get my poor brain off of overload.
I think part of my problem with math is that I’m “too analytical”. I want to understand every single teensy part of every single teensy problem, I want to understand the mechanics from the inside out. And I need them to be concrete. Imaginary numbers?, equations that can belong on so many different points on a graph, and yet it can be the same equation? There are so many possibilities, just like you say.
I’d like to do better at it. The funny thing is that contrary to the horror stories that my dad fed me regarding people becoming complete failures unless they were good at math, I actually do pretty well financially and have a good “real” job (which not only pays well, but which I love, and it’s helping save the planet a little, one abandoned drum at a time :D).
And I have fun part time jobs (teaching fitness and dance), all of which means I don’t have a lot of incentive to suddenly become Miss Algebra, (not that the intense fear of being a math failure was much incentive either, being forced to do math was and is, the greater fear).
Maybe that’s part of the answer to another poster’s question/comment/complaint of why people are so cheerful about being bad at it. It’s kind of like having dodged a bullet. Wow! It’s not the career death sentence our parents and teachers told us! Whew! So maybe some of the “he he, I’m so bad at math” attitudes are a form of gallows humor. And maybe a bit of “well, I’m so good at so many other things, why put some one down for what they can’t do?”.
Aside from that, is it really necessary that EVERYONE be an algebra genious? Just as there is a need for rocket scientists and molecular biologists, there is a need for people to be good at “just” english, or writing, or to be chefs, or to care for children.
Sometimes there is a such a snide elitist attitude toward those who are “bad at math,” perhaps the cheerful "Oh, I can barely put 2 and 2 together is somewhat of a “so what!” to that.
One question for those who’ve gone from true math phobic to being good at it, other than the OP, how’d you do it and who helped you? Did you get a tutor, or perhaps a friend or family member?
And once you DID become good at it, did you find it helped your career? Did you change or better your career and paycheck because of it? Or was it just to see if you could get better at it, for your own satisfaction?
I’m wondering, I have a whole bunch of math tutor CD’s that my bf bought for me. When I was taking math classes a few years ago I used some of them.
And I create AutoCAD drawings and schematics for a lot of my investigation reports, I’d like to understand math better in order to increase my skills in that area, mostly just for enjoyment of the program, but partly for the ole resumè.
The relation of numbers to one another. Finding new ways to solve mathmatical problems etc. Of course I am a steel designer and have to add subtract multiply and divide long lists of numbers everyday. Designing steel grating stair treads and stringers while maintaining osha specs along with standard steel detailing and shop practices is something i actually enjoy doing.
I love all the little tricks to simple math. The easiest one i learned a million years ago.
consider a large number
1248
add all the numbers together 1+2+4+8 = 15, now add 1+5 = 6, if the last single digit number is evenly divisible by 3 (which 6 is) then the entire 1248 number is divisible by 3.
how cool is that!
of course i learned this in like the 3rd grade but there are lots and lots of tricks that can help someone that is math challenged to hone their “in head” calculations.
playing cribbage and dominos is a great game to help kids and adults alike with adding and subtracting.
my GF is a bit of a math phobe and she would like help getting over it.
also many many years ago i remember some odd system of teaching young kids a math system on their fingers (yeah yeah i know) but in this system each finger represented a value, something like the pinky was 1 the ring finger was 2 the middle finger was 3 but the index was 5 and the thumb was 10. you could rattle off huge numbers to add subtract and multiply and these 7 and 8 yr old kids were snappin back the answers faster than a calculator. anyone recall this?
hey come to think of it, if anyone knows a website or book that compiles tricks and tips for math id love to hear about it.
The best way on a standard 4 button is probably 1.0063x============ which is just a quicker way of doing what you did. What you did is the important bit - understanding what interest is, and thus that interest in the second month is affected by interest in the first, etc.
Fortunately for people who get bored typing ‘times’ a lot, there’s a shorthand: 1.0063[sup]12[/sup] which some >4 button calculators do for you!
This is where a calc is useful - multiplying out the expression longhand is boring and useless (though we should know how to do it.) Fortunately/unfortunately, you need an impressive calculator to do the ‘understanding compound interest’ for you
That’s my problem. It doesn’t interest me in the least. I hate the thought of that last math class I need for the AA degree. I couldn’t give a shit about lines, graphs, imaginary numbers…any of that shit!
They were able to make other class mildy interesting. Some of them were damned exciting. Not math, though. It sucks.
Same university, and everything. Maybe it was the writing concentration I’m in that brought around the reaction “Oh, I could NEVER do that. I can’t even write a paragraph!”