Humans are cyclical. We live in cycles. Whether it's the seasons, everyday needs, or health, we tend to require the same things over and over: lather, rinse, repeat. I have been contemplating the importance of thinking and taking time to process lately. It's so easy for our tasks to swallow up our growth, like a snake swallowing its own tail. We need growth that isn't consuming. When the mathematics homework and tasks become frustrating, we need to take time to consume, think, create, and manage. Or as my son says: "input, process, output, maintain." If we rush the input and process time, which I am prone to do, we will suffer. Our learning will be limited; our growth stunted.
I encourage you this week to rethink your learning objectives. What goals do you have? How are you ensuring that you take in the right information, have time to contemplate it, make space to create something, and manage it well?
We do this with all learning and life, but let's look at how this is done with mathematics:
- Read all sorts of math books, listen to people talk about math, and watch lesson videos. You can't think about things that you've never heard of before. Take time to consume the material that you want to learn. Surround yourself with good books and people who are passionate about what you are learning.
- Take time to think. Embrace your inner Hercule Poirot and give the little grey cells a chance to work. Don't worry about coming up with solutions or solving problems. Focus on understanding the problem as a problem in and of itself.
- Stop holding everything in and start writing it out on paper. It's hard to hold numbers in our head. Ask yourself questions about the material and play with the numbers on paper. This is when you attempt to "solve" the problem.
- Manage your learning. Don't forget to think about the truths that you discovered. You aren't a machine. You can't just save some input onto your drive and pull it up later. You need to revisit it and connect it and continue the process of thinking about it. This doesn't have to be long or drawn out, but it has to be something.
As Spring breaks in your area, let the new life draw you to discover new truths.