I'm an engineering student, and I'm about to finish my math class career with differential equations. I'm a returning student and my original major was classics. I've tutored and taught math through intro calculus to high school and college students. So you would think I lived math in school.
You'd be wrong. I failed my pre-calc class in high school. I was 17 and more interested in flitting than analytical geometry. And looking back I think I know why I didn't like math.
Math to me seemed rather pointless. I saw some basic addition, subtraction, arithmetic problems as being useful. Bit beyond that it seemed pointless. So why bother? While teachers kept SAYING math was useful it didn't apply to any of the other things I was learning. It wasn't until I started taking very heavy science courses that it did become integrated and useful.
That only addresses motivation. My experience from tutoring high level math is that it's often not taught right. Teachers tend to overcomplicate it and it frustrates students.
You'd be wrong. I failed my pre-calc class in high school. I was 17 and more interested in flitting than analytical geometry. And looking back I think I know why I didn't like math.
Math to me seemed rather pointless. I saw some basic addition, subtraction, arithmetic problems as being useful. Bit beyond that it seemed pointless. So why bother? While teachers kept SAYING math was useful it didn't apply to any of the other things I was learning. It wasn't until I started taking very heavy science courses that it did become integrated and useful.
That only addresses motivation. My experience from tutoring high level math is that it's often not taught right. Teachers tend to overcomplicate it and it frustrates students.
