Have you ever hated something and then grown fond of it? Do you think it is possible to love something you hated? This happened to me with my attitude toward math and math people. I had thought that math was neither interesting nor useful for ordinary people like me until I met some genuine math people. This is a remorseful confession of a math-hater. Let me chronicle how I used to see math, what I happened, and how it changed me.
Beginning from high school, I started to dislike math, and I thought that I could compensate for it by investing more time on other subjects I was good at. The question, “Why do I have to learn trigonometrical functions or calculus?” was always lingering on my mind. Cashiers do not ask me what the square root of 9 is at a supermarket. I thought it is enough to know basic arithmetic for survival. On top of that, math class was dry and boring, and seemed to be about only memorizing formulas and constantly solving problems. My classmates who liked math appeared to me to be unkind and cold-blooded, whereas I thought of myself as flexible because I could see that 1 plus 1 could be bigger than 2. Upon my admission to college, I thought I was done with math. This tedious subject would no longer exist in my life, and I ceremoniously threw away all my math books. Math was alien to me and useless, and existed in another world only for math people.
However, opposites attract, maybe: I got married to a mathematician. My husband and his coworkers I socialized with turned my world upside down. I found out that math is around me and useful for understanding what is going on in my daily life; it lies in the golden ratio and rule in art pieces and Bach’s symmetrical music. Pythagoras once accounted for the correlation between musical chords and the lowest common multiple; a note represents a number, and when the notes in a chord such as Do, Mi, and Sol refer to a numerical relationship, they sound pleasant. If not, they do not sound amusing. I also learned that math is not just about simple calculation. There is even a math professor who failed at two-digit addition, but is dexterous with proving complex math problems, which is seemingly paradoxical to the concept of math I had. Talking with these people helped me to think outside the box. They are the ones who do not take things as they are; they catch the hidden meanings beyond the surface that the manipulative media provides. I realized that math is not a horrible subject which is full of numbers and calculations, nor is it apart from my daily life. Math people are neither strange, unkind nor callous.
Due to my contacts with math people over the years, I found that math is not useless at all. I learned two important things. First, math is not about solving equations, problems or calculating numbers; rather it is about developing logical thinking, prediction skills, and wise judgment. Second, why I have to learn math changed into what I can get through math. I have even bought a math book written in English. There are reasons why every country has so many years of compulsory math courses in their curriculum. Math is a handy tool which helps develop brain activity. Life requires an endless array of decisions, and logical thinking nurtured by mathematical skills can lead us to the rational decision.
Honestly I still don't love math. My attitude has changed, though. That's a giant step for me. I often tell my students that math is important because I really don't want them to regret like I did. Teachers have to play a crucial role to help their students find the right paths.
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