As a Physics major with a Mathematics minor, I have a few opinions about math. I enjoyed math and thought it was a cool puzzle to work through a problem to arrive at the solution. But for many children (and their homeschooling parents) math is not their “favorite subject.”
I came across this article (note, it’s a sponsored article…) at homeschool.com that talked about motivating homeschoolers for math. Basically it lists 5 things to be mindful of when offering math as an activity for your child. I was particularly interested in #3: Wrong Answers are Valuable.
I believe this is important in more than math. But math class is a great place for this principle to shine through into the minds of our students. The idea that failure is not a catastrophy to be avoided, but instead it is the process we go through on our way to mastery and success. No one is flawless in their performance of any task from their first attempt. We try, we persevere, we adopt, we adapt, we learn, and we master. This is how we succeed at anything.
Math is particuarly helpful in this for the simple fact that there are right answers, and there are wrong answers. It is very obvious to the student and the teacher that 4 + 4 has only one answer in arithmatic. 44 is creative and imaginative, but wrong. So what do you do with wrong answers?
Your attidude regarding missed math problems can show you your path to future success or disappointment. For far too many the solution is to decide this is not for me. I will not try if I cannot get everything right. This can teach self defeat. An alternative is to be curious enough to find out why we got it wrong. Where did we go off the tracks? How can we improve? It takes reletively small effort to grasp simple mathmatical concepts and change missed problems into higher and higher levels of mastery. And it is a beautiful thing when a child can look back and realize how far they’ve come.
Math is more than the mastery of numbers. It is a tool in logical thinking. It is also a means to teach about handling the set backs, the complications, and the diffuculties of life with resiliance as opposed to quiet resignation.
Use your math time to teach more than just going by the numbers.