When you teach math, call it discovery and problem solving, not math.

Why is Math a four letter word I ask? Maybe it shouldn’t be. You see, math is important in everything we do, and sadly, sometimes kids get intimidated by math and so they shy away. They try to avoid it, and it is this fear that makes them dislike a subject that is so important to life. Maybe we can do something about it as teachers.

Maybe we should call it problem solving, discovery, and not use that four-letter word so much. Once kids get good at math then we can call it math but until then maybe we should call it something else, after all kids need to understand why they are solving these problems and they need to be rewarded for solving them.

As you may know, I am an advocate for teaching math and science in our schools, and for ensuring that each and every student who graduates from high school has the math skills they need, the very basic math skills to get by in the world. They need to know how to budget a checkbook, understand simple interest, and they need to know a little bit about taxes, economics, and all those political statistics that are thrown at them, as they mature and become voters.

Yes, that would solve many of the problems of our society and civilization, and we, the teachers, are responsible for that, it is paramount that we rise to that occasion, because these children will soon lead our society in the future. In preparing this article, I was going through an old textbook I picked up at a used book sale. When I flipped through it, I liked it, bought it, brought it home, and put it in my library.

The name of the book is; “Discovering Statistics: An Adventure in Problem Solving” by James S. Hawkes, Quant Publishing, Charleston South Carolina, 1995, 624 pages, ISBN: 0-91809-12-8.

Just that title alone makes my point for me here today. I mean, math is about solving problems and it’s about fun challenges, almost an adventure of discovery. It’s amazing how quickly the minds of young adults can turn when they discover the power of math and begin to see the world in a different way. So why don’t we take that four-letter word and make it something great again, because, frankly, our future depends on it? In fact, I hope you will please consider all of this and think about it.