Mathematics is beautiful, mysterious, and vexing. We study and learn how to communicate through the written word because God spoke to us through His written word, but why do we study and learn how to see the patterns in nature? Because the patterns in nature are a puzzle showing us the nature of God, they are worthy of study. So, what's the problem? Why do we struggle so much with communicating to our children the importance and beauty of the study of mathematics? We have believed the world's lies about math. Over the next few weeks, let's debunk some myths about mathematics.
Our first myth is so prevalent that I even had a 12 year old girl argue with me this week about how she's just not a math person. What does that even mean? Could you imagine if our students at the wise age of 12 told us they weren't "listening" "reading" or "speaking" persons? Assuming they didn't have a physical ailment preventing them from engaging in these skills, we'd just claim they were being childish. Yet, adults will say of their child or themselves:
Some people just aren't math people.
The fact is that no one is born with the innate ability to perform mathematical feats. Even Einstein didn't have great math skills early on in life. Could you imagine if he wrote himself off as a non-math person? This myth arises from the reality of the difficulty of the mastery of mathematics. It also comes from the belief that math is a procedure based subject. This common belief is drilled into our students' heads with pages of worksheets on carrying, borrowing, long division, solving for x, and substituting values into a formula. While it is important to know how to use a formula for our advantage, mathematics is actually the discovery of the truth and the creation of the formula rather than the computerized application of said formula. To write mathematics as a formulaic procedure based subject that "some people just get" sells it short. Where is the subject that rivaled philosophy for the top of the liberal arts?
While we are debunking myths, I think it's important to note that some people do in fact struggle with procedures. Procedures can be difficult to follow, but learning to follow the procedure in mathematics isn't the study of mathematics. It's a human skill that we use in many areas of life, and can be more difficult for some students than others. Most mathematical procedures are written to be programmed into computers and left to the world of automation. Let's learn them, and move onto the real math! Pushing our procedural struggles onto mathematics guarantees that we miss out on the beauty and mystery of the creation.
As Paul Lockhart says, "Students are not aliens. They respond to beauty and pattern, and are naturally curious like anyone else." Removing the beauty and pattern from mathematics has hindered the advancement of mathematics and contributed to this myth. Rather we should agree with Descartes and remember.
For it is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to apply it well.