Thinking about mathematics, what comes to your mind right away? When people do, they think about addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
The acidic wasteland of mathematics washes over you, waiting to be colonized and lashed with life.
When I was learning to multiply, it made me frustrated beyond belief because I had a limited vocabulary to express my anguish. I didn’t know why I couldn’t do it so it made me cry. The teacher told us that we have to know how to do it in a one minute interval, giving us roughly one second per problem. Then, I learned how to argue with what my teacher was teaching me, I enjoyed it more, because the definition of square and rectangle felt wrong to me. A whole barren wasteland opened up to me.
I got a job as a tutor at the Mathnasium when I was eighteen. That’s my secret to having ease with numbers.
I’m a mathlete and would have liked something basic to read a couple years ago, before I started to win scholarships and make sense of what works for me.
Every student learns differently, no two learn the same, so what works for you may not work for someone else, says a coworker at the Xavierite. In a paraphrase of another Xavierite member, why would you want to read about math?
Have you ever heard that football is a contact sport? Math isn’t a spectator sport either. What I internalize, after having needed it for Calculus, is the acronym: VeGAN TomorRoW. V stands for Verbal, we can understand the Latin roots, know that everything in math has a name and a number, and that those names make sense. One can understand math verbally, graphically, algebraically, numerically, technologically, or through application to real-world situations.
So what is the basic template for learning anything new? According to the Algebra books by publisher McDougal Littell, there are many ways to approach and climb the same mathematical hill. If you are trying your best, you are doing it perfectly. When you make mistakes, it’s like being burned by an interesting dragon and being invited to tea to learn from that dragon. I know that it is a difficult hobby.
This is what is exciting to me as a Calculus student. In Calculus, my teacher and mentor looks over my shoulder and listens. Then I can clearly hear him say “Yes, it’s ok to skip steps if you don’t need to write them out.” When I pitch my ideas and my teacher wants to know what I am working on, I can tell that this math is new and awesome. For students to transition to Calculus, they may try the G in VeGAN TRW: Graphs. Drawing saves on time and frustration because it saves on the effort needed to have an “Aha!” Moment.
I wouldn’t recommend knowing everything: most people only internalize what they will use later that day or later in the week. Computer-Aided Technological demonstration helps to motivate us to integrate the right way and to settle questions about why we learn all the new integrals. If a student has the time, then cycling through the material and adding detail might work. Try to make it your own and focus on the things that you will use in the Real-World: the math that is relevant to your career.
I know most of us won’t go into mathematics fields, so it’s more of a pain for us. I feel at ease when I understand it, the peace builds as I purse my lips in consternation and work through the simple examples with a pencil. Other times, I’m unwilling to make pencil marks and puzzle out an answer.
I don’t want to push this aggressively, yet I think mathematicians should be around kids. Just have little kids in the room as math people do their thing: so that they can learn to express mathematical ideas in ways such that kids can understand: through storytelling and concreteness. There’s a grand lot of thinking behind this. Try something new to understand and be understood.
Nick Vasilyev
Viewpoints Contributor