Why You Hatin' On Math???

A lot of people complain that they don’t like math and that it is so much different from all the other core subjects we learn in school. Even some of my pre-service teacher colleagues believe that it’s hard to apply a lot of the concepts about reading and writing strategies to math because of its different nature than say English or History. Math is being identified as its own little world in education, having its own language, but in reality, every subject has its own language, content, and progression.

Math is identified as being different from the other subjects because it is not subjective. Math is very straightforward and to the point. There isn’t a lot of room for discussion, debate, opinions, or any deeper form of literary understanding. We can go through proofs or look at the history to see where something came from, but you can’t really say “I think this is what Newton was trying to say when we was creating this equation” or “I disagree with Pythagoras’ proof” because math is fact and it has been proven.

You also read differently in math. Throughout this semester, we have been talking about reading and writing strategies to use in the classroom in each of the different subject. We talk about a lot of different strategies, but not all seem to fit in place in math. You have to sift through and figure out what can work and how you can use it. Think about this though. I read differently in English, History, and Science. Does that make each of them different? Can I use every strategy I learn about in each of those subjects? I talk differently and use different words in history than I do in math? Why does that make math the outsider?

Sure, with math, you may have to adapt some strategies and may not be able to find themes or emotions in what we read, but that doesn’t mean those strategies are non-existent. A textbook in math usually has examples and practice problems and equations rather than paragraph after paragraph of information. Does that make it a bad thing? I never learned anything from my history book, reading those long, dry chapters of one-sided stories and extracting information. But my math book showed me how to work out problems and build my understanding, building on what I have previously learned. Do you need to know how to read Nathaniel Hawthorne in order to understand Shakespeare or to write a thesis? No. It doesn’t build on what you have learned. Neither does history. You learn American History in one class, Ancient Rome in another, and European History, and they expect you to remember all of these different dates and people that you don’t really care about. There is such a wide span of content to be covered and none of it builds on each other. Where’s the sense in that?

Just because something isn’t easy to apply to math doesn’t mean you can’t. I can draw vocabulary trees. I can make a Venn Diagram. I can find books to read, even if they’re not the type of books you expect. Why does math have to be different from everything else? Putting it in its own little box away from all the other contents takes away our ability for interdisciplinary learning. Don’t be scared of math…embrace it. It’s not going to change, there are multiple ways to go about it, and turning it away is giving off a bad vibe.

Take some time and think about some of these questions:

Why do you or don’t you like math?

What makes math so different from your content area?

What are some similarities between math and your content area?

How can you use math in other contents?

How can you use other contents in math?

I don’t want to sound like I am babbling on or bashing anyone’s content, but think of how much math gets hit on. Why do you think that is? Is it okay for math to be compared to all other content areas?

P.S. This is not how I expected this post to come out. I just kinda went for it!