Math.... Are you good at it?!

I was good at math the way we did it in school. Back when you could just solve the damn problem and didn't get only one problem a night that required a 3 page explanation of how you got your answer. Math was simpler on our day.
Oh, and what happened to memorizing the times tables? Why is that not done? I know kids have to understand what multiplication is, but I don't understand why they spend weeks showing what 8x8 looks like instead of a day or two going over what multiplication is and then start memorizing them. I don't know a kid in the school where I work that has the multiplication tables memorized. We had to do 100 problems in 3 minutes for each number before we could move out of 3 rd grade. Now when you ask a kid a multiplication problem you can see them trying to solve it by repeatedly adding the numbers. Also, this weird reverse borrowing thing? Totally nuts and not any quicker then the way we were taught.
I like, no love, old math!

The pendulum is slowly swinging back over to placing more importance on memorization of facts. We just redid our grade level objectives in a Texas (no common core here) and at 3rd grade it now say "recall facts up to 10x10 with automaticity"

No. I never progressed beyond trig and statistics. I took the absolute minimum math in college to get my degree.  Math and chemistry are the big reasons why I didn't peruse medicine.  Big long background story. 

No, other than basic math, I suck.... BAD. DH is a math freak. He can just see the numbers in his head. DS is the same way. Poor DD isn't as bad as I am, but I don't see an invitation from the math team anywhere in her future.

Math is my passion. Specifically, teaching math is my passion. Granted, I teach it to five-year-olds, but the way we teach math is the same…

i've already argued here – countless times – about how and why we teach math the way we do. So I'm not going to put you through that again tonight.

But I will argue that we all have the ability to do math if we put our minds to it. I get that it's not many people's "thing" and therefore you have no interest in learning it. But that doesn't mean that you CAN'T learn it. I have no interest in learning how to fix my car, so I don't, but if I really wanted and needed to – I would.

The one thing I caution you against – is saying those kinds of things in front of your children. When you say "I can't do math" or "I'm just not a math person," your children pick up on that – and will eventually start using that excuse themselves. Sadly, I hear parents actually say that about their kids –"Oh---she's never going to be a math person, just like me…" Really? You're going to make that determination for your child before she's even left elementary school?

Good math skills are essential for all of the top paying careers in this world. And despite what many people argue, we all use math every, single, day… We use ALGEBRA every single day. What do you think you're using when you figure out your grocery budget?


So the moral of my story is – have a positive attitude about math. Even when it frustrates you, have a can and not cannot attitude – especially in front of your children. Thank you for listening.

Am I really the only one that read this as 'meth' instead of 'math' and thought it was a really odd question?

But no. I'm not good. At either.

I'm good at the basics & I'm great at figuring out a percentage off b/c I like to shop. But algebra & calculus and things like that...heck no. Math problems shouldn't have letters in them.

People who are really good at math tell me no.

Others tell me I am.



Fractions are pretty simple, so I guess you'd put me in the "Hell yeah, you're good at math!" category. 

Didn't we learn something about graphing in high school? y=x2 and you graph that and it looks like something on a graph? Yeah. I was sick the week we learned how to do that. I was so sick i couldn't be at school. I missed all of it and never learned it. I think I eventually learned it but by then it was too late. Is graphing geometry? Graphing? Algebra? Something else? Biology? I have no idea anymore.

I did need calculus in Chemistry and Physics. It was a big help. Since then no but at the time it was helpful, for sure.

I taught 7th grade math for 25 years. Give me numbers over words any day!!!

I LOVE math! I majored in it in college. In high school I got an award for the highest average in Trigonometry for the year. I've always been a bit of a math geek. In elementary school, I had a metrics lunch box

Now ask me to write a paper and I'm toast! I remember agonizing over writing a poem in 3rd grade. It was pure torture.

I used to be good at it. I took 4 years of it in HS and 2 years in college. But it's been so long I think I've forgotten a bunch. Which I've discovered when my kids need help with their math. Luckily it comes back to me after a quick scan of "Math Doesn't Suck".

I never really was growing up but I actually love the "new math" they are teaching my kids these days. I have truly understood so many concepts this way - by helping with their homework - things that I may have memorized growing up but never made sense to me. I love seeing my kids grow up with such a grasp of these concepts!

I like math. It's easy for me. I got that from my parents.

My parents were also good at math. They were, however, lousy at teaching it. As I learned from watching them try to help my younger siblings, who did not inherit the math skills. As far too many math proficient people are, they could simply not understand that some people's brains do not easily and intuitively grasp math concepts. They went too fast, took too many shortcuts, and got impatient. All of my siblings then suffered math anxiety from my parents telling them that they were bad at it. Of course, putting that notion in someone's head is NOT the way to insure excellence.

On the other hand, my parents were lousy at finances. No clue about handling money. So math skills do not always translate into useful life skills. And in life, it's much more important to be able to handle your finances, than solve a quadratic equation. Hence, why I wish we would focus in school far more than life math skills.

I was really good at word problems and algebra. I did have an awful algebra teacher in high school. He hadn't taken math since his high school algebra which he almost flunked. He taught it differently than my mom and the Abeka math book taught it. He'd explain the problem to where we would understand the concept until we got to the answer, then he'd look at the teacher's reference and realize he had the wrong answer. 

That school graded on a 7 point scale instead of 10 points, and he made a huge freaking deal about giving me *one* charity point so I would get a C. The next year I go to a different school thinking I was horrible at algebra. 

I take geometry, which I was NOT good at, but the teacher put complicated algebra extra credit problems on our quizzes and tests. I was one of of two or three students who consistently got the answers correct. That teacher's faith in me really changed my outlook. I really wish I had switched from geometry to algebra. 

My cousins were learning the new math in junior high when I was in college. One of them taught me how to add in new math--like adding 100 + 250. You add 100+200 first and get 300, then add the 50 for 350. DING DING DING alarm bells went off in my head-- that was so much easier than all that carrying nonsense. I still add like that. 

After my stroke, I tried to finish the last few credits of my BA. The school I went to required math. The stroke damage has made math incredibly difficult for me. 

You know that feeling you get when a word is on the tip of your tongue, but you just can't reach it? That's how I feel with math now. It's like trying to swim through concrete. Thankfully being left handed and semi-fluent in French really helped because the damage was limited to math, remembering French vocabulary-- I can still construct high school level grammatically correct sentences and read in French. My neurologists were so fascinated by what I had retained and what I had lost. The explained that the lobes in left handed people overlap, so the area where my damage was located usually causes permanent paralysis. I did have paralysis, but I was able to regain function with lots and lots of hard work. The math has been pretty impossible to get back, and the French is very hard. I'm thankful that my understanding of English hasn't been affected and that I can read and write and move around. 

My dh is completely left brained. You know what they say about opposites attracting. I try to understand his incredibly complicated computer stuff, and he likes to learn about art history, the arts, and loves music. It's so cool to have a husband who likes interior design, antiquing, going to the art museums, and he loves opera and theatre more than I do.