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Don't force your kids to do math

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Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#431

Post by bogdanoff_2 »

zdragnar wrote: post #330
danenania wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your parenting advice is to teach your kids to do things they hate while suppressing their feelings so they can be like the average unhappy person?

I hate doing laundry and cleaning dishes. I still do it, though. There are things in life that you won't enjoy but you need to do. Learning to do them anyway is in fact a life skill. I've seen people follow their dreams into careers they chose because they wanted them, despite those careers not being paid well. They're all at least as miserable as the average person, because what they enjoyed is now work, and they do…

> I hate doing laundry and cleaning dishes. I still do it, though.

Sure, I see your point. I guess what it comes down to is: what percentage of your life do you spend doing that?

If you don't like doing laundry, then don't start a laundry service business.

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#432

Post by stuaxo »

I'm not great at maths, my daughters good though, I think her binge watching number blocks when small helped a lot - felt my own arithmetic getting a bit better watching it, the songs were very catchy.

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#434

Post by CivBase »

t0bia_s wrote: post #348
CivBase wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spend at least 40 hr a week doing something I have no motivation for. Most people do. Even if you don't hate your job, would you actually do it if you weren't getting paid?

Do you find it healthy? Doing stuffs that you hate? Isn't that a consequence of forced education system?

Healthy in what sense? I wouldn't describe my job as "healthy activity". But I also wouldn't describe it as "unhealthy" and it enables me to enjoy a higher quality of life.

Nobody's forcing me to work. I could quit today if I wanted. But I doubt that would be beneficial to my overall health, given I do not have the wealth required to support myself and my family for very long.

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#435

Post by gnubison »

RobinL wrote: post #94
WalterBright wrote: post #63

> Without realizing it, he was doing algebra. A friend of mine taught remedial math at UW to incoming freshmen. She would write: x + 2 = 5 on the blackboard and ask a student "what is the value of x?" The student would see the x, and immediately respond with x means algebra, algebra is hard, I cannot do algebra. So she started writing: _ + 2 = 5 and ask the student to fill in the blank. "Oh, it's 3!"

There is a game called dragonbox algebra which I'm currently working through with my son and is an absolutely fantastic approach to this problem. Sadly its now part of a horrendous subscription service and is hard to access. I find it really sad that we've had computers for decades and there are so few good maths games like this.

As a senior in high school, I devoured this game in elementary school and got way better at math than my peers. Now taking differential equations and multivariable calculus through our college in the high school (CHS) program. When I looked for it out of curiosity I was sad to see it transformed into a subscription service.

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#436

Post by jrvieira »

r0fl wrote: post #222
rerdavies wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The really important thing is to teach kids to find their joy. At the end of my second year of piano lessons, my teacher took me into her living room, and we listened to Glen Miller records for most of the hour. And then we had a cup of tea, and she told me, "this is the music that I love. I play piano because I love that music, and I want to be able to play it myself. What kind of music do you like?" I didn't really…

“Joy” is not found in a day. People enjoy doing things they are good at. It takes a long time to get good at some things and those days suck.

I've yet to see strong correlation between the things I'm good at and the things I like.

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#437

Post by hilbert42 »

jalapenos wrote: post #378
Magma7404 wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the 'boring' stuff parents and teachers are forcing us to learn will actually benefit us My parents forced me to play the piano for more than 10 years because they were obsessed with the piano, and because they had a piano. I hated every second of doing that in order to please them, and I never got higher than beginner level because it was a torture for me. Being a beginner for 10 years should be considered as abus…

Amen. And the surreal thing is to then hear the very same mentalities behind this uttered in this comment section. It's like there's like a vehemence in people towards abuse. Reminds me of how Zweig said that people were in a state of jubilation in anticipation of WW1. There's something dark in humans where they don't accept the absence of pain. They think to at least some extent, that hurting their kids is a good th…

"They think to at least some extent, that hurting their kids is a good thing, perhaps under a twisted "toughen them up" mentality."

Hurting a kid and proper discipline are two separate matters. Good discipline and training doesn't hurt kids (in fact many enjoy them). If you find that your actions are hurting a kid then you are doing things wrong.

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