Mathematics has been considered one, if not, of the hardest subject or curriculum both for the students and the educator. For the students, the concepts of mathematics, the equations involved, not to mention the lifetime journey to find the value of “X” is indeed nerve-wracking and an out-dated fashion. For the educators, finding the fountain of focus and the oasis of persistence in the minds of the new breed of mathematics students entails more than a hundred percent of their teaching prowess. Hence, a continuous dilemma exists.

On an article published by Susan Engbert (April 2015), a Mathematician and educator in the United States, she acknowledged the long overdue problem with Math and Mathematics education. Despite all the time, energy and money the country has thrown into finding better ways to teach the subject, American children keep scoring poorly and arriving at college woefully unprepared. Just as bad, if not worse, too many students think they hate math.

In our country as well, in almost all surveys made in the hope of finding what subject is considered the hardest, Mathematics will always come into the picture. Probably, only 10-12% of the student population will be able to form a good allis with numbers, equations, and problems solvings.

Engbert then proposed a radical solution: Stop requiring everyone to take math in school.

Will this proposal really solve the problem? Will the exclusion of Mathematics from the curriculum be the catalyst of education reform we have been waiting for? Will the absence of numbers, equations, and formulas create a better and conducive learning environment for the students? Well, the answer is NO.

A CHALLENGED-DRIVEN ENVIRONMENT.

People typically offer some combination of four reasons students should learn math: for everyday functions such as buying groceries and reading the news; getting a job in an increasingly technologically advanced market; doing and tax computation, as a powerful way of thinking and understanding the world; to tackle high school or get into a good college.

Let’s consider these one by one. To some degree, students naturally learn basic arithmetic just by spending time with people who use it, and by carrying out such tasks as setting the table, going to the store or sharing toys with friends.

An recent researches, it show that even illiterate children can compute sums quite quickly and accurately in familiar settings (such as selling produce on the street). Babies are born with an intuitive knowledge of numbers. It wouldn’t take much for schools to teach every child how to add, subtract, multiply and divide.

Now, why, knowing the fact that the passion for mathematics is innate to us, suddenly lose it when they enter the world of education? A lack of motivation and learning style in place.

Instead of focusing and terrorizing their young minds for a good score in algebra and calculus, students need three things:

1. Time. For the most part, students think concretely when they are young, and become more capable of abstract thought later. Providing them with more practical situations and ways to learn math could make them adopted to the thought and reality that Math exists in their everyday living.

2. Reading. Research demonstrated that literacy is crucial to abstract thought. Children who read become capable of specific kinds of conceptual and logical thought not available to others. This opens the door to thinking about things that are not part of one’s immediate tangible experience, a crucial aspect of higher mathematics.

3. Intellectual challenges.Students who are immersed in informal quantitative reasoning come to more formal math tasks, at a later age, with much greater ease. Similarly, children who are asked to give reasons for their thinking, or speculate about the past and future, are well positioned to learn various kinds of logic and argument.

SOLVING THE EQUATION.

Provide the students with a challenge to solve on an everyday basis that doesnt involve too much of the high mathematical ability. Inculcate in them that it is through having a good grasp of the basic concept that they can immense fully in the more logical side of mathematics.

Teach young children arithmetic, a task that would probably take 20 minutes a day through the end of third grade. Spend the extra time on reading, and on the kinds of play that involve abstract thinking and problem solving. For young children, this could include building blocks, dominoes and playing store. For older children — chess, “Minecraft,” cryptography and the mental puzzles that can be found in a few outstanding math books, as well as in the brain teaser section of many supermarkets. Ask students to come up with reasons and evidence for what they say, and engage in serious sustained arguments with one another.

By about ninth grade, those drawn to mathematics could take interesting, rigorous classes. Teachers who love math could offer activities as a way of teaching good thinking rather than as an obligatory form of preparation for future math classes. Those who are adept at some other way of teaching good thinking would be free to do so.

Teachers and student relation is one of the real challenge to change the perspective of today’s learners. Educators need to be updated and introduce a “cheap but cheerful” ways on how to make mathematics exciting. After all, we cant deny the fact that Mathematics is a part of our daily existence. Whatever Passion the educator has for Math must be the same level of passion of the learner to love Math, only by then we can solve for the real equation of Passion for Mathematics Education.

By: Rocchely N. Dellosa | Teacher III | Limay National High School