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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

#61

Post by commandersaki »

jamesy0ung wrote: post #53

As someone who just finished school, I’m trying to figure out how to get genuinely interested in mathematics. I’ve never been particularly strong at it, yet I’m planning to enter a university program that demands a high level of math. The problem is, it’s hard to motivate myself to study math for its own sake. For example, I loved learning programming because it’s hands‑on—I can build something and immediately see th…

Find math that interests you!

I didn't particularly find (at the time) calculus, multivariable calculus, physics, etc. interesting as I didn't find the applications interesting at the time. I find these subjects representative of what you traditionally learn at school.

When I entered uni I discovered my passion for discrete math, algebra (groups, rings, fields, etc.), number theory, cryptography, theory of computation, etc. as they have a lot of application in CS.

That's really what did it for me - and also I had great uni lecturers. I wish they would have taught the subjects I like in highschool - the difficulty level is about the same.

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#62

Post by slowking2 »

rayiner wrote: post #29
twodave wrote: post #15

Another article where someone thinks being a parent means they understand all children. I have 4 kids, and 2 of them definitely would never do math, even basic math, for fun, ever. Their brains lack whatever pathways most people utilize to learn math, so I now have a 15 year old who has to work nearly as hard at arithmetic as she did when she first learned it. No amount of drilling, change of curriculum, buckling dow…

[flagged]

I knew some who were bad at math. Asian immigrant test scores on math are ~1/2-1 standard deviation higher than white Americans. That’s noticeable comparing groups of people but still leaves a lot of Asian immigrants who are not good at math.

There is no royal road. If all your kids are biologically yours and you and all your family are good at math and you marry someone from a similar family, you can stack the deck maybe 95/5 in favor or your kid being good at math? But that option is already off the table if you lack that talent. And there are other things you should probably prioritize first!

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#63

Post by WalterBright »

> 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!"

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#64

Post by jakelazaroff »

jamesy0ung wrote: post #53

As someone who just finished school, I’m trying to figure out how to get genuinely interested in mathematics. I’ve never been particularly strong at it, yet I’m planning to enter a university program that demands a high level of math. The problem is, it’s hard to motivate myself to study math for its own sake. For example, I loved learning programming because it’s hands‑on—I can build something and immediately see th…

Make it practical! Graphics programming involves linear algebra. Databases involve relational algebra. Machine learning involves requires calculus. You’ll naturally encounter hands-on tasks with tangible goals that involve learning new math.

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#65

Post by jodoherty »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #20

Something we don't pay enough attention to is that while calculators have solved everyday math to the point we downplay it as a required skill, people are not pulling out their calculator at the grocery store to make better purchase decisions, even though we all have one in our pocket now. So we handwave the importance of being able to do everyday math in our heads, while also not taking advantage of the tool that's…

I think most people don't care about optimizing an extra $10 out of their weekly grocery run.

Probably a better example is figuring out the cost of a loan. Just multiply the amortized monthly payment by the term and compare that to the loan amount. If the difference makes you balk, then go ahead and walk.

How many people even realize that loan interest is a significant cost and would bother to do that? Or know how to do that? Most people just try to minimize monthly payments to something they can bear and sign the paperwork.

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#66

Post by zmgsabst »

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!"

I’ve always found that an indictment of math education — and spent many, many hours discussing it.

When teaching addition, workbooks commonly use a box, eg, “[ ] + 2 = 5” — and first graders have no conceptual problem with this. Somehow, we lose people by the time we’re trying to formalize the same concept in algebra. There’s been many times I’ve written a box around letters in a problem and asked students “what’s in the box labeled x?”

Pedagogy is hard.

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#67

Post by rizzaxc »

jamesy0ung wrote: post #53

As someone who just finished school, I’m trying to figure out how to get genuinely interested in mathematics. I’ve never been particularly strong at it, yet I’m planning to enter a university program that demands a high level of math. The problem is, it’s hard to motivate myself to study math for its own sake. For example, I loved learning programming because it’s hands‑on—I can build something and immediately see th…

as someone who loved maths first but then do programming for a living, it's because solving puzzles is fun. I get the same dopamine hit whether it's a math problem, a coding task, or a video game level. but I think forcing yourself to like something is not the correct approach; you either like it naturally or you tolerate it for some other goals

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#68

Post by chrisweekly »

jamesy0ung wrote: post #53

As someone who just finished school, I’m trying to figure out how to get genuinely interested in mathematics. I’ve never been particularly strong at it, yet I’m planning to enter a university program that demands a high level of math. The problem is, it’s hard to motivate myself to study math for its own sake. For example, I loved learning programming because it’s hands‑on—I can build something and immediately see th…

https://betterexplained.com might prove helpul?

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#69

Post by chasely »

hahamaster wrote: post #43

I tell my kid that math is a language. You learn to speak it, just like you learn to speak any other language, slowly, by listening, understanding, speaking, intuitively recognizing patterns, rules and exceptions. When you start to become fluent you translate problems into math and solve them. At school they keep trying to make them memorize useful phrases, like a tourist that goes to Paris and learns how to say "whe…

> and learns how to say "where's the bathroom", "hello", "would you like to sleep with me", "thank you", "goodbye"

Quite a story condensed into those five phrases.

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