“Students smell fear,”, “And many high  school teachers love reading but not math.” Once students get older, don’t be afraid to push your child in a program that challenges him. “It’s supposed to be hard — if you’re getting 98% in a class… it may be too easy.”

As a teacher I recommends to the parents look outside the classroom to provide the best place to challenge students. “Math competitions, summer programs, math circles (programs which offer challenging math in non-judgmental environments) — whatever you can find that will give your students a taste of why math can be fun.”

Finally, and most importantly, wants parents to give students more time to explore their passions. “It’s terrible. students are so overscheduled, they’re doing all this garbage that doesn’t serve them in the long run.”

The cautions that students who love math and science often end up filling up their time with AP classes that aren’t central to their aspirations but more focused on GPA calculations (like AP Art History), and shortchange themselves when it comes to exploring math and science learning outside the classroom.

In the end, the skills required to solve a complex problem — to break the problem down into smaller parts, to approach it from different angles using different methods, to not getting intimidated or frustrated when the path isn’t obvious — are practical in any field of endeavor — from astrophysics to er, parenting. Ideally, math prepares students to be better thinkers no matter where they land. For now, parents can use these skills to fill in their children’s math deficiencies, one problem at a time.

By: Christopher C. Timpog | T-I | Jose C. Payumo Jr, Memorial High School | Dinalupihan, Bataan