Yey Math, said no one ever!

by Cherry Mae Dimaano

Mathematics, my nightmare
Mathematics was an imaginative thing, devoid of any use, which had the sole
purpose of causing me to be damned as incapable. If many found it difficult, it was
so for me. The mathematics that I learned was pure theory, There was no linkage to
everyday life and what was taught in class. Nobody tried to make me change my
mind. Nobody told me that math is the basis of many things we use every day.
Nobody told me that mathematical algorithms regulate most of the tools we use.
Nobody told me that even in nature, mathematics has a use, that there are animals
that use mathematics to survive. Nobody told me that with math you can solve some
practical problems faster. This was the 15-year-old-me whining about the relevance
of math in my high school life.

My mathematical difficulties
All of us engage in the activities in which we expect to succeed, while we avoid those
that put us in difficulties. I accepted my incapacity with numbers. I was convinced
that I could never be good at Math. I attributed the reason for my failure to the
severity of my teacher, to the difficulty of the task, to bad luck, to a moment of
distraction but the real problem was my perception. This translated into the idea that
I was not born with the skills and no training and further study can change it. There
was a sense of inadequacy. My relationship with mathematics in high school was full
of misadventures. I used to ask myself back then why do I need to know about all
these? I even challenged my parents to show me that I will need Calculus, Algebra,
and Trigonometry in my life. I can still recall when I had to solve a trigonometry
equation on the board. I stood in front of the whole class like a log. Should I multiply
or should I divide? Even if my teacher told me how to solve the equation, I refused
because my mind could not comprehend despite the encouragement. I felt a
paralyzing shame and the experience left an indelible trace. Math was the only
subject I flanked in high school. It represented an acknowledgment of failure.
Mathematics is useful
Mathematical operations are used every day and continuously by people. The
mathematical notion linked to some specific area of application lead the notion back
to something that can justify its teaching. Mathematics is useful, but most of its use is
mental and unaware. When you look at a graph, a number, a formula, a scheme, an
algorithm, or something similar, you are building a myriad of mathematical
connections taken during the many hours spent in the classroom studying
mathematics and doing homework and in others situations to find meaning or start
creating one to what you are experiencing, seeing, and reading. You can rarely go
back and understand when you have learned the skills, even just one, that allow you
to make sense of something. It is practically impossible to identify the moment when
you learned to do a specific thing accurately, especially for what allows us to create
the pattern we use to make sense of the world around us.

If you do not know it, you will never be able to use it

I avoided anything that has to do with Math. Twenty years have passed and I still
veer away from numbers just like how I avoided this course. There was discomfort,
fear, anxiety and all the negative emotions consolidated when I chose to take-up
Math 10. Unfortunately, Math is also, where my daughters do not excel much. I
wanted to help them but my knowledge is limited. This is the consequence of my
negative attitude and dysfunctional response towards Math. Since I know less about
it, it affects how I teach my children. Obviously, I had many excuses and maybe I
hated math because nobody has shown me its usefulness, but why not take a step
forward? Now, I am not only doing this for myself but also my children. I want them
to learn what real math is. Finding solutions to the problems that life poses to us is
not always immediate and easy, on the contrary, more often than not, commitment
and sacrifice are necessary. Just like mathematics. It has nothing mechanical, it is a
set of ideas, reflections, hypotheses, and demonstrations. Everything needs be
discovered! Math requires effort, regular commitment, study, and memorization.
Nothing should be left to chance or fantasy. Everything is concatenated. Learning to
master this subject means learning the important art of problem solving.
Mathematics has several repercussions on our everyday life and, once the right
approach has been found, it can be fun.