A grade 6 student applying HCF during pretended play with ‘KitKat’ and ‘Toblerone’ chocolate bars.
If you don’t know the answer, let me make the frustration even more unbearable: you should have ‘realized’ the answer when you were in grade 6! Did your Maths class feel like you were learning foreign-language-sounding words like HCF and LCM, never actually understanding what these really meant for the rest of your life?
You’re not alone. Math was taught to most of us the wrong way: unreal, boring, procedural, facts to be remembered, formulas to be ‘applied’, so-called ‘problems’ to be ‘solved’.
The only thing ‘natural’ in all of this was the result: math anxiety, leading to the fear of the teacher, the terror of the exams, and a general escapist attitude towards school and education. Just imagine how much this has affected the self esteem, confidence, careers and lives of millions of people around the world.
But did it have to be that way? Certainly NOT! Maths can be and IS fun! Maths was never meant to be ‘learnt’ as a theoretical, conceptual subject. You ‘do’ maths: you enjoy games that involve maths, you discover maths, you develop your thinking skills and build your confidence – until one day you see this paying off in the way you handle your first job interview or your start up’s presentation in front of bankers and investors.
This alternative reality is not fiction…what happens today in the schools is going to show up here on LinkedIn one day, perhaps. Is your child enjoying maths?
@Robokids