Why Teach Mathematics?

Growing up I have always loved mathematics; I found it interesting, it came to me naturally and I really enjoyed numbers. (I had a student ask me yesterday: “Miss you really like numbers don’t you?” Yes, yes I do!)

I first decided to teach mathematics because I was very passionate about it and I wanted to share that passion with students. I also knew that there was a lot of negativity about math in schools and I wanted to make math fun and enjoyable again.

I believe that mathematics that young children learn should be relevant to them: math they would encounter every day. As they grow older, math should begin to prepare them for an adult mathematical world.

I came into the teaching profession just four years ago, thinking that I should teach math the way it was taught to me (notes on the board, questions from textbook). After all, I had learned perfectly that way. I realized in that first year, that I need to change that mindset, because not all children learn that way. As each year has gone by, I have experienced more and more with discovery and allowing students to develop their own methods and ways to remember things.

So why should we teach mathematics? Even after reading the article, I am not entirely sure of that answer. My first thought was because students will need it as adults. My second thought was to teach children to be thinkers. And as I write this, more and more reasons pop into my head: prepare them for university, etc.

Given that thought, I think the math curriculum is too jam packed full of topics that try to satisfy all these reasons why we should teach mathematics, that it is too much for students. Students are lacking basic skills and mental math which are so important to every adult, because we spend very little time teaching (or going back to) these topics. The high school general math curriculum (it is in the process of a much needed change) was teaching children about abstract math that they would never use. Instead they should have been taught how to do their income taxes, balance their chequebook, etc.

I am always torn when I have to write something like this, because I love the difficult math that children always complain they will never use again and I can see all the benefits of teaching it, but on the other hand, I see children lacking so much in the areas that they will 100% use again.