Why not math? Podcast
So I don’t know if you noticed, people just don’t like math. I was scrolling through my Instagram the other day and I came across a math meme. The meme was about someone hating math, there is a guy in the picture and there are math equations, they guy is saying he hate math. It made me wonder, is math really that bad? Does everyone really hate it that much? And actually, it is! It is very common to hear someone say something like “I don’t know what’s the point of learning math, not like we are going to use it in real life anyway.” Right?
I decided to ask Dr. Butler, he’s a professor at Iowa State who teaches calculus about how he thinks when he hears people hating math and this is what he said:
I don’t like the idea of people hating math somehow it is like a badge of honor, to say, ‘Oh I hate math’ and people are like ‘look at me, I’s so cool because I say I hate math
Math is no doubt a challenging subject. People tend to struggle learning math. Learning math can be frustrating and unlike history or geography, you cannot memorize math. When people face problems that require them to think outside the box, they panic and their brain stops functioning. This doesn’t mean that person is bad at math, instead, they are just unwilling to change the way they think. I asked Dr. Butler and this is what he said:
You have to change the way you think, and people are not comfortable with changing how they think, they are very happy with their current thinking. Your brain kind of fights against you when you are trying to learn new things.
This is so true, people who dislike math would do less and because of the lack of practice, they would find it difficult to learn.
And something I think many students can relate to is the exams. So when we are in math lectures, the example problem always seems very straightforward. When we do the homework, it doesn’t look as straightforward as the example problems. And then when we thought we know the topic thoroughly, the quiz’s problem would be on another level. Finally the exam, you actually put time into doing practice and somehow, the exam questions all seem unfamiliar. I don’t understand why many math teachers like to set their exam questions so difficult. It makes students want to give up and made students hate math even more.
Whether you like math or not, also comes down to the experiences you have when you are younger. A “good teacher”, for example, would contribute to your interest in math. On the other hand, some people dislike math due to being “traumatized” by a bad math teacher. A “bad teacher” can range from being mean to students to giving exams with extreme difficulty. People who had positive math experience would turn out to like math better, and people who don’t have a positive experience would not like it. To add fuel to fire, our society says it is right to dislike math.
Until now, you might be wondering why you should even care whether people like math or not. It is their choice to like it or dislikes it. However, Professor Butler says, “math is more than just about solving math problems,” to which is a statement I agree with. Math can get a person to think and spot patterns which are crucial in our daily lives. On top of that, math teaches a person to break big problems into smaller problems. That’s why in universities, math classes are mandatory for many majors. Learning math isn’t completely about the math itself but also the right way of thinking and processing problems we encounter in our daily lives. I think many people misunderstood the purpose of taking math classes and have a strong negative feeling towards it. In the end, it defeats the purpose of learning math.
Now that you know the importance of learning math what can you do to start enjoying it? You can start by solving puzzles. Many puzzles are based on math and it is a great way to start. If getting bad grades is the reason you dislike math, you can try doing more practice. By increasing your practice, you will be able to see significant changes in your classes. However, liking math wouldn’t be as easy as doing more practice. What should be done is to stop hating on the subject and discourage the act of publicly hating math. Society needs to create a new culture in treating math rather than just hating on it.
Works Cited
“Interview with Dr. Butler.” 23 Sept. 2020.
