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Are We Teaching Math in School... Wrong?

Schoolessons

I could remember hating math while growing up. I actually and frequently had a vicious cycle that went like this--(1) I hate math, (2) I don't study math because I hate it, (3) I'd rather play video games or watch TV than study and practice math because I hate it, (4) I fail math exam because I didn't study, (5) it's always I hate math because I believe I'll never get it. In fact, I even felt like I wanted to quit school altogether and get into a fight with my parents because of math. It was a vicious cycle hard to break from, especially during our K+10 days. I remember being enrolled in Kumon classes for the summer when I was approaching Grade 6 (graduating year), I almost didn't graduate because of mathematics, and I had to have tutorials. I always felt math sucked, I'll never get good at it, and I'll never get better. I just kept thinking how "I hate math!" was my mantra and hating people who were better in the subject than I am. I even used my classmates' being "better at math" to keep getting mad. I practically hated myself since math wasn't my forte since I aimed to take a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT) at the Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU). I was seeking "greener pastures" abroad. Sadly, I never reached that dream and I tend to hate myself for it. 

What I always felt was that "I'm doomed!" because I needed to struggle harder in math. I think it had to do with my hyperactivity disorder. I think about how difficult it is to focus on math. I always felt angry even when my math teacher tried to reach out to me. Rather than ask for her help--I decided to throw another tantrum because I wanted to learn things at once. Yet, math teaches patience too though it's not the only objective. All maths is part of life whether we want to admit it or not. Algebra is all about studying functions and finding missing values. Calculus is used to identify the rates of change. Trigonometry is all about angular measurements. Statistics is data analysis. Geometry is about the measurement of shapes and dimensions. These are all applied to real life in one way or another. 

I decided to review what I felt went wrong with math education. You can have a good math teacher conformed to a lousy system. Sometimes, the problem is the student's hatred for the subject. Sometimes, you can have a bad teacher. However, I decided to focus on what went wrong with teaching math. Changing the way math is taught may make more students realize that they're probably not as bad in math as they think they truly are.  


I think the biggest problem with math education is that we're only taught how to do math but not how to apply math. Learning the formulas is one thing. Knowing how it's applied is another. Not knowing how the formula is applied can lead to making math look like a pointless exercise required to get a grade. That's why I often screamed in trigonometry class in my fourth year of high school, "How am I going to apply this in real life?" I had my trigonometry class in my Associate in Computer Science course and nearly failed it. The teachers obviously had to be stricter with math because computer science demands a lot of maths and precision. In engineering and programming, one miscomputation can be detrimental to the whole operation. In no amount of time, those who were in the engineering and computer courses shifted to commerce-related courses. I could remember how I started seeing some of my peers from the University of San Carlos-Talamban on the Main Campus for that reason! College trigonometry (as required in ACS) was when I learned about how trigonometry was used in navigation and engineering. Wait, why isn't high school math taught like that?

Think about what if we taught math in a more practical way. Sure, we have to memorize the formulas. In algebra, you need to learn how to find X and Y or to multiply factors. In calculus, multiplying of factors happens before you find the derivative and anti-derivatives. In trigonometry, you need to memorize the SOH-CAH-TOA and the identities before they can be applied. In geometry, you need to memorize the formulas of shapes and 3D objects. However, a lot of times rote memorization is overly emphasized. Rote memorization is important but the problem is when too much time is spent on it. It becomes pointless to learn about the parts of the triangle, how to do derivatives and anti-derivatives, how to measure angles, etc. if all of these are done purely as a mental exercise than teaching students how to explore the world with math. Maths and sciences are connected. Isaac Newton used calculus to further his discoveries.

We have the famous piece by mathematician Paul Lockheart. It's called "The Mathematician's Lament". One should think about this excerpt from The Business Insider which talks about the problem with how math is taught:

Lockhart begins with a vivid parable in which a musician has a nightmare in which music is taught to children by rote memorization of sheet music and formal rules for manipulating notes. In the nightmare, students never actually listen to music, at least not until advanced college classes or graduate school. 

The problem is that this abstract memorization and formal-method-based "music" education closely resembles the "math" education that most students receive. Formulas and algorithms are delivered with no context or motivation, with students made to simply memorize and apply them. 

Part of why many students end up disliking math, or convincing themselves that they are bad at math, comes from this emphasis on formulas and notation and methods at the expense of actually deep understanding of the naturally fascinating things mathematicians explore. It's understandable that many students (and adults) get frustrated at memorizing context-free strings of symbols and methods to manipulate them. 

This goes against what math is really about. The essence of mathematics is recognizing interesting patterns in interesting abstractions of reality and finding properties of those patterns and abstractions. This is inherently a much more creative field than the dry symbol manipulation taught conventionally. 

Math is supposed to prepare students to succeed. I feel that math is instead making students fail in real life. It's not that my career depends on learning trigonometry or geometry. However, it's killing common sense. I could remember going to Cebu IT Park and appreciating the power of math to create such a wonderful place. I could go to Ayala Central Bloc and other places to learn how IT maths and sciences built the place. I would imagine right now that trigonometry's distance formula may have been used in making Google maps. The distances between four places can be computed using the distance formula. However, think about what it is to learn the distance formula without even knowing its practical application. 

Besides, the way maths (and also sciences) should be introduced is more than just learning patience. Math teaches critical thinking and common sense. Math helps me to appreciate my surroundings better. Not everyone will be using trigonometry and geometry. However, think it over that these maths built the hotels and kitchens for Hotel & Restaurant Management (HRM) graduates to use for their jobs. Rather than say, "Go to HRM if your math grades are bad!"--I'd prefer to say, "Try being an HRM graduate without knowing math and you'll never appreciate your job!" HRM is dependent on the metric system of math such as the use of measuring spoons. HRM is also an application of basic chemistry and basic physics. HRM graduates can't appreciate the good meal they made if they didn't study maths and sciences before college. They won't be using stoichiometry when cooking while the principle itself may scientifically explain why I enjoyed eating that piece of well-cooked steak or why caramelization requires such a delicate procedure. Calculus may also help explain why the barbecue was cooked at the right temperature and why it tasted so good. Then, the HRM graduate appreciates the well-designed kitchen with all the safety standards because of maths and sciences. 

Math will always be taught no matter what because of its crucial importance to understanding everyday life. I believe that we should continue to fix and improve math education one way or another to reduce the "I hate math" mentality. What's the use of memorizing the four basic operations if we don't know how it's applied? 1 + 1 = 2 will make sense when you think that one apple and one apple make two apples. 1 -1 will make sense when you realize that eating that one apple means zero apples. 2 x 2 = 4 will make sense when two apples got added with two apples. 4 / 2 = 2 makes sense when you divide the four apples into two groups. It's amazing how the application is taught more during the earlier years. Sadly, applications get ignored in the later years. Worse, people only know how to apply maths when they take the wrong course for them such as taking engineering or computer courses when math isn't your forte. This is one thing that needs to change--the way math is taught. Math is a fundamental force in business and economics. Algebra, calculus, and statistics are extensively applied in finances and economics. Why wait until college to learn the practical applications of math? 

References

"Everything about the way we teach math is wrong"

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