Tag: hate math

How to Quit Saying “I Hate Math”
Is changing how you feel about math like changing who you are?

My Little Brother is a licensed professional counselor. He often tells me that you can change your attitude by changing your behavior.

Apparently the behavior-attitude door swings both ways. If you don’t want to do something because you feel frustrated, do it anyway and that will clear up the frustration.

So that’s how you can get your attitude and your child’s attitude aligned with positive feelings of math.

Stop saying angry math things.

I’ve pointed out that the real place kids learn math is at home. And I’ve discussed why grown-ups should quit talking about hating math. But until now, I’ve never said how to do this.

Because it’s easier said than done right? When you’re frustrated, or your children are frustrated, you’ve gotta say something. So you can’t “just stop.”

HOW do you quit saying “I hate math” (when you really do hate math)?

First, make a list of all the math things you do (download the handy helper here). Here’s a starter list for both you and your children:
- I know how long it takes to get dressed and so I can calculate when I have to wake up in the morning.
- I can figure out if our car is getting good gas mileage.
- I can figure out if I have enough money saved to by a nice toy.
- I know what I have in savings and if that’s enough to buy the fancy shoes I want.
- I know how many minutes it takes me to walk to my friend’s house.
- I know that riding my bike to my friend’s house is faster than walking.
- I know that in the past I couldn’t reach the middle of the dinner table, and now I can – because my arms are longer.
- I can figure out how much I’ve grown in the past year by looking at my growth chart.
Copy your list and put it on the refrigerator, in the bathrooms, on the front door and next to your bed. When you find your child or yourself wanting to say, “I hate math,” instead say, “I can do math because __” and fill in the blank with something from the list. If you need to, continue like this:

This particular math problem I’m working on is more challenging than what I already know, but it isn’t hard. I just have to figure it out. And since I’m smart enough to do all that other math, I can figure this out!

The behavior of changing what you say will have a positive affect on how you and your children feel about math!

Try it. Let me know how it goes!

This article was previously part of a We Are That Family “Works for Me Wednesday” post.

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June 24, 2011
How to Answer ‘When am I going to use this?’
If you’ve ever taught or tutored math you’ve encountered the question, “When am I ever going to use this?” Maybe even hundreds of times.

And no doubt you’ve tried the answers that you’ve heard your math teachers give:
- You’ll need it in a future job.
- You’ll want to balance your check book someday.
- Blah, blah, blah.
I was on the Teachers.net chatboard last night and there’s a discussion in the math teachers section about how to answer this question.

I was horrified to read that some teachers actually respond with, “How about as homework, you find the answer to that question.”

Egad!

We all know it’s a discrationary tactic. We know that there are lots of good uses of math. And we’ve experienced our answers shot down with, “I’m not planning on doing a math job for a living, so I won’t need it,” or “I’ll hire a CPA to do my checkbook.”

There’s only one right answer to this question.

“You’ll never use the math I teach you. Ever.”

I offer $10 to anyone who can come back to me in 10 years and tell me that graphing functions (or whatever we are learning that day) has actually had an applicable use in their life.

Of course they’re horrified at this answer. They give me looks like, “What? Are you an alien here to invade our classroom. Did you eat the real Bon?” No teacher has ever been that honest.

Graphing functions is virtually useless as a real tool. As is most of what we teach.

I used to get phone numbers from men at bars with my amazing use of the quadratic formula, but that’s only something you can tell college students. And they don’t buy it anyway.

Teaching math is teaching brain exercises.

The reason we teach and learn graphing functions (or other math) is to exercise a part of the brain that we rarely get to use. A part that will get used sometime later in a weird way.

We’re building new paths in the brain. We’re carving a way to alternative problem solving that might one day be useful in solving interpersonal, business, automotive, or other type of problems we have.

I tell them that math class is a game. A fun time to escape once a day. This is a play time to stretch their brains and do something completely different.

And I certainly don’t pile pissiness upon pissiness with the attitude of “If you’re going to challenge me, small menial student, then I’m going to give you extra homework.” That really motivates students… to hate math.

How about you? How do you answer the question? Are you supporting future math happiness? Share your thoughts in the comments.
April 20, 2011
How to Get People to Stop Saying ‘I Hate Math’

Imagine this…

You’re at a a party. Someone asks you what you do. You say, “I’m an undertaker’s assistant. And what do you do?”

They say they teach English.

You say, “Oh wow. I have always HATED English. I can’t even read the street signs!”

The guy a few feet away overhears this and joins in the conversation: “I know, right! I tried to read and write stuff in high school, but it just never worked for me. I finally decided that English wasn’t my thing.”

You respond with: “Yeah, when I go to a restaurant I ask the waiter to explain everything. So many letters! I don’t understand how you teach such a dreadful subject. I’m so sorry for you.”

Have you ever done that? Seen it? No doubt you’ve seen with with math.

Why can you say, “I hate math” but not “I can’t read”?

Why is it acceptable, even cool, to be “bad at math” but those who can’t read or write stay in the proverbial closet?

It’s time to come out, y’all. If we can’t get people to stop saying “I hate math” then let’s water it down by saying “I hate <anything else>.”

The next time you’re at a party and someone tells you what they do, respond with, “Wow, I’m so sorry for you. I’ve always hated <field/career>. You must be miserable!”

The more we all do this, the more people will stop giving credence to the words “I hate…” Soon the phrase “I hate math” will be extinguished.

What do you think? Can you do it? Will it work? Share your thoughts in the comments.

April 9, 2011