It All Adds Up
Helping your child understand math — and why its relevant.
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor
F
or John Klein, mathematics
is like a symphony. The
numbers, the theories, the
equations all sing with a kind
of melodious power no less stirring than
the works of Beethoven.
"Math and music have a lot in com-
mon," he says. "Of course, with music
you can listen to it right away and hear
that it's great. With math there's a very
aesthetic side, but this is not revealed
right away. You have to learn a certain
amount of the formalism until you can
appreciate the sensual
side, which is very
beautiful."
Klein, a professor of
mathematics at Wayne
State University,
believes that everyone
can learn to love math,
too; it's simply a matter
of knowing how to "lis-
ten" to the numbers.
For those many parents
whose children are
struggling with every-
thing from the basics,
like addition, to the
seemingly impossible
trigonometry, Klein
offers this advice: First,
make certain your son
or daughter has the
right teacher.
"Learning math
means acquiring skills,"
he says. You don't have
to be born with an extraordinary talent.
The key is getting a good teacher."
A good teacher will encourage a child
to discover for himself, Klein says. A
good math education doesn't mean
memorizing theories (X+Y=Z) and then
spitting them back out on tests. It is,
instead, a process of discovery, of learn-
ing why X+Y.Z.
As a boy growing up in New York,
Klein was fascinated by his father's
engineering books. Theories intrigued
him. Why, he wondered, did the
Earth revolve around the sun in an
ellipse rather than a circle?
In junior high he became smitten
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2003
38
with math; that he had good teachers
made all the difference.
One instructor, an MIT graduate, reg-
ularly hosted math competitions. Small
groups, about six students each, would
be presented with challenges for solving
various math problems: "How many
ways, given a deck of cards, can you
make a full house?" or "Take any whole
number and cube it [3x3x3, for exam-
ple, which equals 27]. Now subtract the
number you first cubed [leaving you
with 24]. This number will always be
divisible by the number 6. Why is this
so?"
This was no mere memorizing,
and build blocks of confidence.
Make certain children really under-
stand what they-are doing, she says. If
they are successful at something, chances
are they'll like it.
As a little girl Wrotslaysky loved math.
"I liked the logic of it and figuring
things out," she says. "I was always
explaining [our math assignments] to
my classmates, which is why I became a
teacher."
Wrotslaysky went on to receive her
master's degree in mathematics from
Queens College in New York and has
taught at Wayne State University, where
she received a certificate for teaching
Klein notes. It was thinking, discover-
ing, understanding and so much fun
that to this day Klein calls it "recre-
ational math."
Another suggestion for parents who
want to help their children improve
their math skills early on: Watch it with
the calculator.
Klein laments the fact that "kids are
getting calculators before they've mas-
tered addition and subtraction."
Debbie Wrotslaysky, a math instruc-
tor at the Jewish Academy of Metro
Detroit and at Yeshivat Akiva, believes
that many children don't like math
because' they're afraid of it. Her advice
to parents: "Start with the very basics
excellence. Though she likes to make
learning fun, often bringing games into
the classroom, she always returns to the
basics.
Before teaching children algebra,
make certain they really understand
division, she says. Before teaching divi-
sion, make certain they truly understand
addition and subtraction. Start at the
bottom and thoroughly grasp each step.
Wrotslaysky also likes to engage chil-
dren as often as possible in problem
solving (rather than just listening to a
teacher lecturing) and she applies math
skills to real-life situations.
And as to the child insists his mind
just isn't made for any math?
Wrotslaysky doesn't buy it. "Everybody
can learn up to pre-calculus," she says.
"After that its not for everyone."
Another popular childhood argument:
"Why should I have to learn math when
I'm never going to use it?"
WSU Professor John Klein notes that
math skills are, in fact, needed for every-
day activities like shopping. Go to the
grocery store and one box of tangerines
is on sale for 10 percent off the regular
price of $5.99; another box sells for
$7.99, but the cost today is 20 percent
off. Which do you buy?
(Give up? The first is still the bet-
ter deal.)
Further, numerous professions
require not only a solid knowledge of
math but are dependant on the kind
of analytic skills one develops in
math. "Mathematics is part of a pro-
gram of thinking clearly and logical-
ly," Klein says.
Even if your child isn't interested
in a career (like engineering) where
math will be used on a daily basis,
math is part of a basic education,
Klein asserts.
"What's the point of an educa-
tion — to get a good job or to
learn how to think? I say it's to
learn how to think. One would
hope a child would need a mini-
mum [of math skills] to be consid-
ered educated," he says.
So start your child with the basics
and do not move on until he or she
has mastered each step. Encourage
children to think for- themselves, to
explore the theory, the formula,
rather than just spit it out. Assure
your children that math dopS not
begin and end with the caltulator. In
fact, math can take you ; ll around the
world and even unravel' its mysteries.
"Geometry is so relvant,"
Wrotslaysky says. "To get to the moon
they needed math; they needed the
imaginary number system."
"Math is the language of the physical
world. It gives a description of the very
large, like the cosmos, and the very, like
the atom: And it's now being applied to
give ari' understanding to the human
body in DNA research," Klein adds.
"Math explains everything that admits a
mechanistic or formalistic reduction." ri