| What is learning math all about? What's the basic | | | | spending weeks or months over it? Probably the |
| idea we need to help our children be successful in | | | | child simply wasn't ready for it. It's like picking |
| math? What's the secret to math ability? | | | | cherries: when they're ready, they come right off |
| In the United States, most people, most teachers, | | | | in your hand. If you have to pull hard, it's because |
| most students, believe that learning math is about | | | | they're not ready yet. |
| developing understanding of certain concepts of | | | | But What About Natural Math Ability? |
| principles. | | | | What about natural ability? OK, a very |
| There is a pervasive belief that a certain type of | | | | coordinated child might learn very young. Might |
| innate math ability, the much desired trait of | | | | teach himself. Who knows? Think you can look at |
| "Being Good at Learning Math," is the key to | | | | a bunch of ten year olds, twenty year olds, thirty |
| success. And the lack of it is the cause of | | | | year olds ... and tell who learnt to ride at four or |
| frustration and failure in this subject. | | | | five or six? |
| But nothing could be farther from the truth. | | | | I doubt it. |
| Just Like Riding a Bike | | | | With unusual talent, the child can learn faster, |
| Think of teaching a child to ride a bike. What are | | | | easier, a bit younger. But none of this is likely to |
| the conditions for success? There are three. | | | | matter much in the long run. |
| First, the child needs to have already mastered a | | | | With the developed skills in place and an OK |
| set of motor skills that are prerequisite to riding | | | | teaching technique, really almost anyone can learn |
| the bike. He or she needs to be able to walk and | | | | to ride. |
| run already, so that the strength and endurance | | | | What About Mastering Concepts? |
| to turn the peddles are in place. He or she needs | | | | What about the concepts? You think the child |
| the gross motor coordination to hold the handles | | | | understand how the bike works? I only do in a |
| tight, peddle, and turn the head a bit, all at the | | | | vague way myself? I'm sure I don't understand |
| same time. He or she needs enough sense of | | | | why it's easier to balance when you're going |
| balance so that the potential to stay up is there. | | | | faster than when you're going slower. You really |
| So, we need prerequisite skills. | | | | don't need to understand "the why and the how" |
| Second, we need developmental readiness. | | | | to be able to do it. |
| There's a point in maturity when the child is ready | | | | Natural ability makes it easier, but isn't the main |
| and able to put it together to make the step of | | | | thing. Conceptual understanding isn't the main thing. |
| taking off the training wheels. | | | | The main thing is sound prerequisite skills, |
| Third, we need some kind of technique to help | | | | developmental readiness, and some sensible |
| the child to get going. An approach that will make | | | | approaches to instruction. |
| it relatively easy to get started. A system that | | | | Now here's the scary part. Most math students in |
| will make failure less likely. Like taking the child to | | | | our schools are hitting the material without the |
| an open level place without cars. Like running along | | | | necessary prerequisite skills, without |
| holding the back of the bike, gradually letting go | | | | developmental readiness, and without satisfactory |
| for longer and longer. Like keeping up the words | | | | approaches to education. This is pattern of math |
| of encouragement. | | | | education is what is really behind the current |
| What about the screaming, the tears, the | | | | "math anxiety" crisis in American schools. |