I would just like to say, there is a lot to math. There are many types of thinkers who turn into math lovers. Some highly logical people love math, some very visual spatial people love math. Some people need to learn math bottom up as it is taught in most schools, some are able and prefer to learn top down where a tough real world problem is expressed then said individual must learn all of the math to solve the tough problem. Often, I've seen on this forum "Foster the love of reading", good advice, I say the same holds true of math. I do love math. If an individual loves math they will become very good at it.
I believe the way to learn to love math is to see it in a light where some area of its natural beauty according to ones own strengths is illuminated. This requires some searching. For me math is very visual. When describing math concepts I use visual words. I try to explain the shape of the problem. I was this way as a very young child, and I hated time wasted on all of the building blocks that teachers felt were sooooo important, which were painfully obvious to me. So in grade school, I hated math class, but did love math.
So in practice if the child has any area of math that the child loves, I would say foster that love, and find problems that require the learning of the necessary building blocks. Doing fun projects that really require math to solve, to me those are awesome. They are best when not manufactured, but legitimately real. So often in grade school all of the problems are so obviously manufactured to teach a specific concept, where as in the real world math shows up in unexpected ways. The fun for me is solving that unexpected math.
True, all of the grade school checkboxes should get checked, but the love of math is far more precious than the checkboxes.
Last edited by it_is_2day; 02/14/15 08:40 AM.
