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How to Fall in Love with Math (article in the NY Times)


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I've been wondering - and this makes me wonder more - if I can come to love it late? No disrespect to God/Ausgustine intended.

Why not?

 

I had a student at my cc class who was a WWII vet. He had taught history for years, never liked math, and wanted to learn. He ended up a tutor at the cc. Really neat guy. I think it's never too late.

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I've changed my ideas about math just in the last year or two. Sure I took upto calc bc in hs but I always said math is the subject I hate. That would be the class I didn't mind if I got a B in bc I was never going to use it.

 

But as my dc get older its really interesting to see the logic behind the math. I enjoy redoing algebra and adv probs not to get to the answer but to see "how" it was solved. Just yesterday I started a math club to go over mathcounts problems, me the person who said I hated math my whole life??!!? But it is so eye opening for me to see how kids "get it"

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As a non-math person, I really wish there was a resource I could use in the upper grades that focused on the beauty of maths. I believe it's there. I get little glimpses of it with algebra. But I don't know enough to point it out to kids beyond 12.

 

I have some resources linked in my siggy if you want to take a look.

 

A number of books and resources I've listed (with others' help) target older kids. Even if you choose something that feels young, I am quite certain you will find something there that you might not have encountered before. Math is so vast and almost all of these books and resources go deeper than the traditional textbook/ traditional math curriculum.

 

Another route is to look for Art Benjamin's Great Courses when they are on sale...there's something about Prof Benjamin's sparkly eyes and enthusiastic attitude...he makes math magical imho. :001_wub:  His Secrets of Mental Math are computational in flavor but he also has other titles that go deeper than computation. Also look at the Between the Folds documentary and the BBC Story of Maths. Watch the documentary about Erdos!

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