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Why does everyone hate math?
Going to school (as I do on a daily basis), you see tons of different people with different interests (as I imagine you would in most situations). So everyday I see my friends, acquaintances, colleagues, and everyone else in my grade, and the vast majority of them just don't like math. I just want to know why. Personally I love math, like all caps LOVE math, but I just can't get why it's just decided that no one is going to like math. Of all of the subjects to hate, why does everyone gravitate towards math? Is it just that it's taught badly (which I could very easily see), does everyone just see it as useless to know that x=2 when 12x+7=31, or is it that you just went with the crowd? But for all you math haters, why? And if you don't hate math like me, what made you go against everyone else?
Sarah Chang
paula kwonyike
John Gianino
Robert Galway 20+
If you accomplish this work, you are often rewarded by many things, including the beauty of an exact answer or a better understanding of the bounds of a problem when no answer can be found. Understanding math techniques also provides you with many tools to solve your own problems. Mastery of these techniques can make you competitive in many fields. For most, math is a means to an end in one of these pursuits. For some,the desire to be the best an anything, or everything in some instances, is facilitated by the strength of mathematical arguments. Although a bit tragic, for some, just being socially accepted as a math nerd is a desirable outcome. Math a communication language also transcends cultural, political, and economic boundaries. Similarly, mastery of it has a sort of universal respect.
So what you see in school as hatred, might just be a convenient response to the willingness to do the work required for understanding. For some, the work required is greater than for others. Acceptance of this fact is more difficult than hatred. People on the easy path of developing a hatred for math are doomed to have the lack of effort haunt them their entire lives. A more unfortunate situation is the plight of those who have the willingness to do the work and the aptitude to learn it quickly, yet are prevented from exploiting their talent by economic, political, cultural, or other extenuating circumstances.
Use your opportunity and your passion to THOROUGHLY understand the concepts and applications you are taught in math classes while in school. Perhaps in doing so, you will discover a way to increase worldwide appeal to the subject.
Gail . 50+
When I was in 3rd grade, being introduced to the multiplication tables, I was told that when I was grown up and married, and had a house of my own, I might want to replace my carpeting or lynoleum in my house and I would need to know that (in 20-30 years). When I learned how to multiply fractions, it was so that when I was an adult with children of my own, I would know how to cook better. When I learned about computing the area of a circle, that I would never need to know that unless I became a scientist or mathematician (at which point I was amazed that math was actually a career choice). When I learned about computing the volume of a cylinder, I was told that I would only need to know that if I were a man who was a farmer and had to know how big a silo needed to be.
Of course, I grew up at a time when women were excluded from most career paths. If we wanted to be a professional, we could be a nurse or a teacher (neither of which appealed to me), and all the fun jobs (in my estimation) were reserved for men only. As my teachers knew that I was a female, and that math would be lost on me, the bottom line given for learning it was so that I could graduate from high school - which my parents expected of me.
I never saw my parents using math to solve problems (though I didn't know that they did mental math often). It was consistently reinforced that math was a waste of my time, but I had to learn it anyhow. In that way, it was nothing more than a form of abuse. If I didn't do it, I was punished. Doing it was punishment.
Today, I love math and wish I could find a way to fill in the missing pieces
Mary M. 50+
I now love Math.....but it wasn't like that before......I had to really struggle to get a passing grade. When in school, I thought Math concepts were beyond my understanding.
I have found that viewing Kahn academy videos are great for me. Have you visited the site?
I started to love Math when I started college. I undertook the task of staying one lesson ahead of my professor. I would study really hard prior to going to class. That was all that it took to love numbers and the concept of applying them. Ever since then I have had a different relationship with Math.
I especially love word problems that are multi-step and need algebraic solutions.
I had a conversation about Math with Fritzie on another topic and what I mentioned there to him kind of related to this topic.
It seems that alot of kids hate Math because when they are asked to apply it..."Word Problems"....they just don't know where to start solving the problem. There is a lack of general "comprehension" of what they are being asked to do. This goes directly to the teacher's lack of teaching......and of course, the child could have comprehension issues related to "reading".
I have to agree with alot of what has been stated on here already. That is, teachers could do more to help kids enjoy doing Math. There are so many tools out there to make Math enjoyable and fun.
Thankfully now students have the internet to enrich their classroom learning, I think that in itself will create a huge paradigm shift as far as the attitude towards Math is concerned. Don't you think so?
Gregory Pipkins
I didn't always like math though. As in, there were points in high school when I didn't really care. And I can't just blame that on "bad teaching". But as I've gotten older, the more I've come to value the math I do remember and the connections I do make using numbers and patterns.
:)
John Gianino
I think you hit the nail on the head. Math is a language. Its a set of symbols and concepts that relate and work together. Why everyone hate's math is probably because the language is not spoken from birth and its rarely spoken in a dialect that people can understand. For most people, it would be like trying to learn Japanese; reading it as a native English speaker, and having the instructor pronouncing with a Russian accent.
Fritzie Reisner 100+
While people may vary in taste for challenge, it may be more likely that those who shirink back from it are uncomfortable with making mistakes along the way.
Robert Winner 50+
Ethan has it occured to you that math teachers are people who always got it ... the light switch came on early and the language became clear. At our high school we had a math teacher with a masters and he could do it all .... except communicate to those who "did not get it". He had two groups "in" and "out" He pressed on with those who got it and the rest failed.
Probally more than any other subject math and science are the two major "hates". Science has taught us that if you are good at one you will struggle with the other ... a general statement but somewhat supported.
So to address your question. In elementary school we are "beat up" with math .. a good part of the day is dedicated to it and it is the major homework load. It is never made fun ... you are kept in at recess ... and are singled out as a under achiever ... and even the best of teachers isolate the slow learner for additional help and "special" attention. This, IMO, is the start of the mental blocks that occur in math. Elementary school students that fall behind in math ... exactly when do they get the opportunity to build that base ... never in Jr High or High School. The treachers do not have the time for one on one and as I said many do not have the communication skills to impart the math knowledge.
I am a firm believer that the best teachers should be at the elementary level. Give the student the tools to make it all easier and more productive later. Sports, education, interaction, character, work habits, etc .. are all elementray and home enforced traits that will help us through the rest of our lives.
I wish you well. Bob.
Ethan Mook
I'm astounded at the thoughtfulness of the answers I'm getting, and I'm surprised at the direction the conversation has gone. I hope this continues, it'll give me something to think about.
Man TED is just amazing.
Pabitra Mukhopadhyay 30+
The moment human mind can discern many from one, it becomes mathematically endowed. Sadly, the utility side of mathematics is unjustly hyped and nobody talks about the beauty ( and yes abstract beauty too) of mathematical expressions.
Numbers are a very small part of modern maths. Setting up a mathematical formalism within the realm of given axioms and using it to describe a real life problem is what it stands for. There are absolutely elegant and ugly ways to do it.
Teo Teo
Casey Christofaris 10+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
Casey Christofaris 10+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
Casey Christofaris 10+
Krisztián Pintér 200+
Josh S
Krisztián Pintér 200+
Casey Christofaris 10+
carolyn mcauley 10+
Gordon Barker 10+
Math is taught badly at all levels (including first year university) with no connection to the real world attempted usually.
Math as an abstract language is best left to those few who see math this way and for the later grades. For the majority of us, math should be seen as a tool for breaking down problems and searching for answers.
Sir Kenneth Robinson summed it up succinctly when he said that the final target of learning math should not be calculus, it should be statistics.
Ethan Mook
Gordon Barker 10+
In band, it is important for the student to start playing music early. Not just to study chords, key signatures, obtuse italian phrases and scales. As well as exercises, there are studies, chorals, arranged pieces for different sized groups, etc. And good music as well. Nobody likes variations on the Carnival of Venice.
Art as well is not just the study of color, painting techniques, brush strokes and perspective. People study form and composition by doing.
But in math, for some reason, we have a reluctance to see math in the real world and sequester it in an ivory tower. It is the language of the universe and can be used to describe everything that I can think of. But not everyone is capable of such lofty heights.
And rather have everyone try and most fail, I would suggest that setting a goal of having everyone understand how everyday processes can be better understood using math would be the foundation that is required in a democratic society.
I use that last term because I believe that a democratic society requires an informed population who can read a budget, understand a mortgage and realize when someone is using statistics to get their own way.
I, personally, spent more time attempting to learn the proof to the chain rule (calculus) than I care to recall. And I didn't spend near enough time on geometry or statistics (until I had to go and learn them on my own)
Pabitra Mukhopadhyay 30+
Ethan Mook
Krisztián Pintér 200+
sadly, most "math people" don't like that approach, and they want to treat math as abstract as possible. they just like the internal structure of mathematical constructs. but this is not the way to reach the average pedestrian.
i think wolfram explained it quite well, i'm just repeating stuff here. give people tools to understand and model the flow of water or air through a complex set of walls and obstacles. give them tools to solve equation systems. and teach them how to describe real problems using equation systems. i don't care about the equation systems. i don't care about their classification. i want to solve and understand real world problems.
Ethan Mook
Krisztián Pintér 200+
gale kooser 20+
Farokh Shahabi Nezhad 10+
How many people do you know that use integral in their lives? but it's force to us to learn and study!
Math is form some, not all! just like every other subject ! it is forcing that create HATE not math itself
Pabitra Mukhopadhyay 30+
Farokh Shahabi Nezhad 10+
Theodore A. Hoppe 200+
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-07-09/math-education-remedial-algebra/56118128/1
As good as this article is at answering the question here, what is most telling is the comments section of this article.
My speculation is the kids are not getting a strong enough foundation in the early grades to advance into higher levels of problem solving. This seems to be Dan Meyer's point, textbooks teach the wrong lessons. Meyer is providing this message to math teachers. Should they know this?
One solution to this is an innovative teaching method called "flipped classroom." Children watch the video of the lesson at home and come to class to do the "homework." The teachers role changes to one to a partner, mentor, and facilitator, and this also allows for peer-to-peer learning. Also see Mathtrain, another innovation in math learning, where the students are the teacher.
http://www.mathtrain.com/
Fritzie Reisner 100+
Rather the classtime involves students tacking problems together, where those problems use math in an authentic context and the teacher moves around facilitating student investigations and bringing out interesting discoveries to the class, via the students, in the closing plenary. The problems are carefully sequenced so as to move through fundamental concepts and connect and review them.
This is a very common math pedagogy now in the United States and what teachers are commonly trained to do in their credential programs..
george lockwood 20+
POTUS when they got bin Loden.
sumber berkat
math is so unreal subject for my brain
maybe know u love calculus, but when u study about integral and angle....so make confuse...
what is sin, cos and Tgn... huff
Fritzie Reisner 100+
These have important applications in situations in which you need to know lengths in situations you can describe with triangles.
The integral is entirely different, being a measure not of length but of area. The Integral is the area under a curve. It can also be used to find volumes
edulover learner
Of course,teachers' encourage was very important for me to like math more.
But I had been confused a long time because I really didn't understand what math's value in our lives?
But now I feel I benefit a lot from hard study in math:because I eventually can understand math is another language to descripe the world simpler,clearer than the language we speak.And math helps us everywhere.
Fritzie Reisner 100+
Fritzie Reisner 100+
There are a few reasons people sometimes lose their taste for it or don't catch "the mathy bug." First, math is often very poorly taught in the lower grades, by teachers who themselves don't like it, don't have a deep understanding of it (like the answers to the "why" questions), and project something of a fear of it onto their students.
Second, that many math problems have right and wrong answers is a problem for people who feel uncomfortable about making mistakes.
Third, people differ in how they process math problems in a way that naturally takes different people different amounts of time. Being fast isn't important, but kids often get an early impression that if you are not fast, you are not good at it. So pokey types sometimes get discouraged and focus elsewhere.
One thing I always found appealing about math is that there is nearly nothing to memorize. It is all about understanding how it all fits coherently. But after a point, people do need to remember their multiplication tables to proceed comfortably. If people do not know them and don't have access to a calculator, they struggle with most math that follows, and it makes the whole thing unpleasant, as those who do know that one thing move forward.
What I have definitely noticed, though, as I have taught a lot of adults in addition to kids, is that many people who disliked math or found it difficult to learn while at school can find it fun and interesting later, if they see it again with a great teacher who understands the material well and how it connects to things that interest them.