In November, I received a message on Facebook from Mark Kronenberg, the founder of Math 1-2-3, Inc., a math tutoring and test prep company offering on site, online and virtual tutoring. He wanted to share an article he'd written about the math mistakes that parents often make with their kiddos.
Since English tends to be my specialty, and Math often ranks a #6 or 7 in "The Top Things That Make My Head Spin," I thought I'd take a peek at this article. It's a good one! As a person who was once the kid raising her hand a dozen times in Advanced Math in high school, (while the "mathy" kids of the group shook their heads in disgust), I can relate to Kronenberg's first point:
"Parents who were poor math students may think it's hypocritical to expect their children to master what they learn in math class. By telling children about their math-challenged past, parents unwittingly pass on the message: "It's okay to be bad in math because I was bad in math." In non-mathematical subjects, it's possible to do poorly during one school year and excel during the next school year. But math foundations are too important not to master. Students who struggle in one math class are very likely to continue to struggle in future years. Kids who hear the message that a "B" or a "C" is fine have been set up to fail in future years. Many children label themselves as "dumb in math." Since the subconscious mind is incapable of disbelief, children whose parents allow them to negatively label themselves further facilitate their own failure."
More Math Help:
Comments