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If you've ever had to help your child with math homework, you really appreciate their teachers, who do it every day. "Math anxiety" isn't something only kids experience.
Maybe you haven't seen an algebra formula in years, and weren't that comfortable with them when you were a student. Maybe you're a skilled mathematician, but don't know how to explain what you're doing to a child. Whatever the case, math homework can leave parents feeling every bit as frustrated as their children. Homework doesn't have to lead to unpleasantness, though.
What I've learned through my own experience—as a teacher, a researcher, from helping my own children, and now watching my daughter work as an elementary school mathematics teacher—is that communication is (excuse the pun) the common denominator when it comes to making math homework a positive experience.
The National Science Foundation (NSF), where I work, is dedicated to research. We support scientists across the country who study learning and education systems. But we're also teachers at heart. On lunch breaks in the past, a group of us gathered to help our NSF peers with their own questions about how to help their kids learn math.
Do Soylentils have better tips, things that have really helped their own kids learn math?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by anubi on Saturday May 13 2017, @09:35AM (3 children)
Ethanol... your observation about physical parental discipline:
I was raised with physical discipline. I would say in retrospect that it was best that my Dad did it than to have a Law Enforcement Officer do it.
I would not consider a lack of interest in math a reason for discipline, no more than I would consider a lack of interest in sports ( guilty as charged ) a reason.
I was really good in math. That did not mean I was a success in the workforce. I believe STEM is really overhyped by those wanting cheap minions.
However, I will not tolerate things like bullying, shoplifting, vandalism, or other social nuisances which would be sure to make my kid end up in prisons.
So, today, its a felony if Dad has to resort to physical means... so why is it not a felony for our Law Enforcement Officers to do what Dad was supposed to have done?
Believe me, they will also resort to physical means if they have to.
Our Law Enforcement Officers do not need to be tasked with doing what Dads should have done.
You just nailed one of my biggest fears on being a dad.
The other main fear I have is divorce law.
I do not believe the modern guy stands a chance in today's legal environment when it comes to family things. I do not even know where to start. My reaction to all this law was to avoid this part of life.
Probably just as good for all concerned, anyhow, except for the lawyers.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday May 13 2017, @09:56AM (2 children)
The other main fear I have is
Quadratic equations?
Infinitesimals parading around as integers.
Irrational relations, Pi, Theta, and their kin.
Prime numbers, how do they work? Is it like magnets?
And you are afraid of divorce law? Wow, just wow.
(Score: 4, Touché) by maxwell demon on Saturday May 13 2017, @10:16AM
I never heard for someone whose private life failed because of the failure to solve a quadratic equation. On the other hand, the consequences of a a divorce can certainly lead to a failed life.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 13 2017, @04:30PM
I'm affraid of The Donald. He's an irrational number.