Bad at Math Class, Good at Math: Why I’m Writing a Math Book
Welcome to A Mother’s Thinking Love: Living Ideas, Lovingly Shared! I have been thinking about how to teach math for over a decade in both the classroom and homeschool. As I have been writing on this blog and active on social media sharing homeschool content, sharing about math has become a focus for me. There’s a few reasons for that. In today’s blog post, I’m sharing those reasons and about why I decided to write a book on teaching math. Join me for: “Bad at Math Class, Good at Math: Why I’m Writing a Math Book”!
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Bad at Math Class, Good at Math
I was a good math student up until the fourth grade, then I wasn’t. This was devastating for me because I worked really hard in school. I wanted to be a good math student, but it was out of my reach. I continued to struggle with math all the way through college. But something changed in my second year of teaching when I took a third grade math teaching position: I began to enjoy math! That was over a decade ago, and I still enjoy math today. Despite my transformation, I’m still tempted to label myself as “bad at math”. I’ve come to realize, however, that I’m actually not bad at math. I was just bad at math class. Believe it or not, those are actually two different things!
“We Teach What’s Easy to Test”
I didn’t have a good way to articulate it succinctly until I heard Ted Dintersmith say this on a podcast, in regards to teaching math:
We teach what’s easy to test.
“YES!” I thought. This is exactly what I had been noticing for the last decade but couldn’t quite find the words to say. This explained why, although I struggled in math class I could still enjoy math: because math isn’t just what we do in math class. In fact, math class is a very, very small part of math.
Math-Phobia & Fear for Sale
In all the years I have been teaching math, I have rarely met a mom who enjoyed teaching math or participating in it herself. Due to the way schools teach math in our modern world, and test it, a lot of us have developed a math-phobia. Unfortunately, we can inadvertently pass this on to our children. Even without saying a negative word. This math-phobia is magnified by the math fear that so many curriculum companies sell. While I’m sure this is good for sales, it’s not truly based in reality. It’s also not helpful.
Why I’m Writing a Math Book
This is why I’m writing a math book. There’s so much stress and fear surrounding math. I hope to help lessen or even eliminate it. I hope to bring joy to math time in the homeschool. Thank you for reading: “Bad at Math Class, Good at Math: Why I’m Writing a Math Book”! Do you have any questions or concerns about teaching math in your homeschool? Leave them in the comments!
