Once you have begun to tell your young child that she may have just one candy, you have launched her on her math journey. Eventually, you will introduce her to bigger numbers by asking her to place three or four spoons on the dinner table, to use five colored pencils for her drawing, or to invite ten friends to her birthday party.
Problems have a bad rap. Facing a sudden problem disturbs our life routine, takes time and effort from things we like or have to do every day, and forces us to focus on the unpleasantness of solving something difficult in order to remove it and move on.
There is a noticeable trend among today's parents to keep their children of all ages busy with structured activities at all times. Sports, crafts, clubs, after-school classes, tutors...all of these follow each other in an endless hamster wheel of activity. Then, hours of school homework leave neither place nor time for leisure, genuine curiosity, or...boredom.
Every teacher knows that one girl or boy in her classroom who just won't do "it," whatever "it" is: a math problem, essay writing, or jumping rope. A teacher's gentle encouragement of these students tends to fall on deaf ears because they have an unfortunate condition I like to call "learned helplessness."
There is a prevailing public sentiment that math is something to be feared. Many adults readily admit their aversion to the subject, proclaiming a proclivity for literature or the arts instead. This math anxiety begins in childhood, as early as first grade and is compounded through a child's personal history of math fatigue and negative experience in math classes. No adult in their sane mind...
