Four Things I Learned While Doing Math

Lately, I've been tutoring math to a h.s. kid who's studying at the British School Manila. I was looking over the textbook they use and immediately noticed there was a huge difference between the way the subject was being taught. I've been used to handling curricula that covers a lot of topics, but only on the same subject for the whole year or the whole semester. The British School, on the other hand, covers a smattering of different math subjects over the entire school year, i.e. a little of algebra, geometry, statistics, trigonometry, etc.

Admittedly, it was jarring to me at first. I mean, it would be kind of confusing for me to juggle factoring polynomials for a week or two and then suddenly shifting to calculating the angles of a polygon. As I was discussing this situation with another educator, he pointed out that it may actually be beneficial to kids who have a short attention span. In this manner, there would be a variety of topics covered, and boredom due to monotony could be avoided.

But I digress.

I was actually talking with the mom of the kid. Being the chatty people we both are, we got into talking about my own h.s. experiences about dealing with math. I told her, sure it's true that one doesn't really need to know how to do arc-tangents, solids of revolution, and critical points to survive everyday life. Adding, subtracting, dividing, and multiplying would do just fine. But it isn't the topics that are important, it's the skills you get out of doing math that matters.

And like I told her, these are just but a few things I learned out of doing math:

1. It pays off to be logical and systematic.

That's perhaps the most beautiful thing about math. You can't really pull things out of nowhere. Everything has a rhyme and reason, everything has a purpose. Step by step, you build up statements that are based on previous statements. It's exactly like building up a Lego house: brick C is on top of brick B, which in turn rests on brick A. Of course, there are always short-cuts are available, but even they have a reason for existence.

2. There is more than one way to skin a cat.

Believe it or not, there's a fair amount of creativity involved in solving math problem. There is no one solution to arrive to an answer. If one method doesn't work, there are always other methods to do it. And as long as the solution presented is solid and logical, then everything will be all right.

3. The more you do it, the better you get at it.

Math always has two components: the theoretical and the skills aspects. Personally, I hate the skills aspect to math. Juggling numbers has never really been my forte. I'm no walking calculator. I tend to be careless and let little slips pass by. And as we all know, if you build on that little careless mistake, then you'll end up with the wrong answer. That's why I always try to do more problems than what is required. If possible, I tackle the hardest items at the end of the exercises. It's a two-thronged approach: I get to practice both the skill, and at the same time, cover the possibilities that those items would be similar to what would appear in an exam.

4. Patience and perseverance are virtues after all.

I don't claim to be a genius. I really don't have ready answers whenever I do a math problem. Worse, a lot of times, I even hit a dead-end along the way of solving a question. Whenever this happens, I just leave it alone and just go on to the next. If I have the luxury of time (specially if they're just supplementary exercises), I even sleep over it. Sometimes the solution presents itself when I return to it. Sometimes, it doesn't. But my whole point is that I always get back and just work at the problem until I come up with an answer.

In hindsight, I guess I was just lucky that I had good math teachers when I was in high school and college. No matter how much I'd pester them to check my extra work outside class room hours, they'd be very accommodating. Thanks to them, I grew to love math, and in turn, I try my best seed that seed that love to the kids I teach.

But enough about me.

What has been YOUR math experience?