A World Without Math?

Math…the dreaded four letter word. Some parents and their children do quite well with this subject; they require no extra help to tackle it and get it right. But there are plenty of others who do not get along so well with math. It is an important subject to be able to understand and master. Every part of our lives in some way involves math- buying groceries, purchasing a gift for someone else, planning a birthday party, or more extensively for those who work with cash or measurement on a regular basis.

Math is a foundational subject; the base must be understood and mastered before the next tier or layer can be attempted. Often there is a gap or lack of understanding of those base concepts. This prevents students from moving onto subsequent concepts, leading to frustration, low self esteem and/or limited opportunities.

According to a study done by Harvard University, only a small proportion of students (4.5%) in California’s Silicon Valley are doing as well as the country of Portugal. Massachusetts is the state with the highest percentage of advanced math students. So you can move to Massachusetts…or a more realistic solution would be an elementary math intervention program.

In first grade, I had a horrid time with understanding math. For some reason it just did not click. My teacher would sit inside with me at recess to try to help me. I cried over how hard it was. In middle and high school I didn’t have the same problem and I didn’t say the words, “When will I ever use this?” because I actually enjoyed math to a point.  But now that I have kids, I have heard those words. It would be so easy to say that they can just leave the math behind. But they really cannot. It would be extremely unfair and almost downright cruel to let them skip math.

Can you imagine a world without math? It would have no computers, no televisions, telephones, or any electronics. It wouldn’t have medicine or machines to build. We would never have enough food to go around and we would never be able to plan a party! Obviously it’s important. It’s important enough to get a hold early on and an elementary math intervention program may be just what is needed for some.

This post sponsored by Dreambox Learning. See Disclosure/Policies.