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What are YOU Good at?

What are YOU good at? 

 

Good question!  Do you have an answer?  I sure hope so.  Think about it a little bit.  Make a list.  I'll wait ...

 

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Is Math on your list?  Are you good at Math?  Do you consider yourself to be good at Math?  Enough to put it on a list of stuff you are good at?

 

How does the statement "Not everyone is good at Math" make you feel?  I mentioned that fact in a recent post and received an email from a reader titled "Everyone isn't good at Math Myth".   To quote a bit of her email .... "As an educator, please reconsider writing the words “everyone isn’t good at math”.  Try this; sometime explain the concept of “x” raised to an “n” (polynomials) to a third grader (third grade because they should know how to multiply).  Surprise!  They will get it.  They may not be able to do the algebra and write it down, but I guarantee if you explain it logically, they will be able to explain it back to you.  We are all wired for math.  We just need to keep those wires active!"

 

Surprise!  I can explain how to take the derivative of a polynomial to a 3rd grader and, assuming that they can multiply (which, by the way, is not a given any more) I could then give them 10 different polynomials and they would be able to take the derivative correctly!  They would be able to do Calculus!   I'll bet they would even be able to do it well enough to be able to teach another 3rd grader how to do it.    But .... do they truly understand what they are doing?  Would they know when to do it in the course of doing a word problem?  Would they then be able to take the derivative of more complex functions?  

 

At what point are the people destined to become Mathematicians separated from the people who become something else?   At what point do people say to themselves "Hey!  I am pretty good at this!  I think I will continue to do it and maybe even make a career out of it!"  

 

Inversely .... at what point will people say to themselves "Hey!  I'm not very good at this!  I think I will look into doing something else for a career."

 

And is it such a bad thing for me to say  "not everyone is good at Math"?  

 

Consider these statements:

Are these statements offensive to anyone?   I mean ... I can do all of the above things.  Am I good at any of them?  Well ... I can swim pretty well as long as you only want me to do the strokes I like and as long as I don't have to be very fast!     With practice I could probably get better at playing the piano and working on particle physics .... but I am not ashamed to say I'm not very good at those things right now.   I enjoy them .... but I'm not very good at them.

 

After I received that email, I asked several of the people I tutor if they consider themselves to be good at Math.  They looked at me like I was a bit crazy .... I am, after all, a Math Tutor, and they were coming to me for help with Math!  Each person stated that NO ... they aren't good at Math.  I asked them if they were okay with that and they would shrug.  Yes .... I think everyone would like to be better at Math, but for some people math is a huge challenge and requires lots of work and lots of help.    People dedicated to their goals will put the work into whatever Math they need to do to achieve their goals.   Many will get the bare minimum needed to pass .... and they will breath a sigh of relief and never do Math again.  Now THAT makes me sad.