Re: How to save an 8-year-old for lifelong mathphobia?
- From: "T.H. Ray" <thray123@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007 15:40:19 EDT
I have no children, but I do have a whole bunch of
nephews and
nieces. To my chagrin, all of them have turned out
mathphobic,
with the possible exception of the youngest one, who
is 8. (Mind
you, the only reason I still have some hope for him
as far as math
goes is based on the uneducated assumption that
"mathphobia" is
something that becomes established at a particular
developmental
stage. Anyway, I found reading Slate's Emily Yoffe's
"The Math
Moron", at http://www.slate.com/id/2152480/?nav=navoa
, downright
*depressing*, and would hate see my nephew go the
same way.)
Unfortunately, I live a couple of timezones away from
my nephew,
and I see him only once or twice a year, which
greatly limits what
I can do about all this. His mother (my sister)
would like him
not to be mathphobic (as she is) but at this point
she is happy if
he gets passable grades. His father is a great guy
but, unfortunately,
not only is he mathphobic and totally uninterested in
anything that
is remotely academic, he has no problem with the
prospect of raising
an equally mathphobic son.
Anyway, bottom line: I rack my brains on how to
kindle a love for
math in my nephew...
Any advise would be welcome. In particular, I would
like to find
books (or websites) of mathematical puzzles suitable
for his age.
I'm looking for stuff that is just difficult enough
to challenge
him, but not so difficult that he would quickly
regard as beyond
him (he tends to get discouraged quickly when it
comes to academic
stuff, which I think may be his dad's legacy).
Also, does anyone know of a good internet forum to
post this question
to? I'm a bit leary of going to one of the K-12
forums one can
find online, because I fear that they are populated
by the same
misguided minds that have ruined math education in
the US. (See,
e.g., the NYT article that Yoffe cites in hers.)
TIA!
kj
--
NOTE: In my address everything before the first
period is backwards;
and the last period, and everything after it, should
be discarded.
Does he have an interest in mechanical or electronic
things? I am of an older generation, before it
became so common to use-and-discard virtually
everything, and building/repairing for one's own
consumption was a pleasure. At any rate, I mention
this because my father (he died before I was three)
was a radio technician who left behind a number of
books on circuitry and ham radio. By the age of 11
or so, I had taught myself quite a bit of algebra
by the sheer necessity to understand, e.g., the
relationship between current and voltage. There are
other hobbies -- telescope building, or rocketry, e.g.
-- where math is applied to predict outcomes and to
measure results. Even if such engineering-type
math as used here does not develop into a full blown
love for abstraction, it should at least ward off
"mathphobia," and it should result in many pleasurable
hours of discovery. As all learning should.
Tom
.
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