“I quit!”, is one of the most common uttered phrase of a frustrated mathematics student. Well, maybe majority of students can’t understand the underlying logic of this accurate, multidimensional world that is full of calculation. It is such a living mystery for me why do students find that “eleven- letter word” subject frustrating and I am quite sure that this notion will hang up in there for a while.
One word. Eleven letters. But underneath it lies millions and billions of unending branches and values. It may be algebra, calculus, statistics, geometry or anything else. However, there are indeed various definitions of what mathematics is. Some say it is a poetry of logical ideas or a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on the paper, or the music of reason but for me simply, mathematics is everything, it is everywhere, it is nature and it is beautiful on the same scale as the golden ratio.
On the other hand, given the fact that everything about us varies,and is fascinating,it may be our status, race, ethnicity, morals, beliefs, attitudes and most especially our preferences. In contrary, most people today do share one specific fondness, the animosity towards mathematics, whatever its form is. How they wish Pythagoras, Euler, Archimedes, Gauss, Euclid and their squad do not exist so that mind-wrecking theorems and calculationswould not come to life. But, everyone is settled with that simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. And that, they won’t have 70’s in their report card. That, everything becomes better, easier and peaceful but they exist in reality. It is the truth! It is real that mathematics is everywhere, and it’s chasing them, even though they hate it.
I always encounter students who have this Math Hate. They tend to complain every time they see a coefficient engraved in the classroom board or in their test papers. They start to question its practical effect on our daily lives. They find it hard to comprehend those theorems, and numerical sentences. They always look at it in a negative perspective and so many reasons.
As a teacher, we have to make sure that we eliminate the slogan, MATH – Mental Abuse To Humans, by humanising math, by making sure that every math problems we give or lessons we teach has a clear alignment to the students experiences or future experiences in life, big or small.
By: Mr.Ernani Mañalac | Math Teacher | St. John Academy | Dinalupihan, Bataan
