{"id":6461,"date":"2013-03-06T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T17:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=6461"},"modified":"2013-03-05T13:00:56","modified_gmt":"2013-03-05T21:00:56","slug":"open-space-the-trouble-with-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2013\/03\/06\/open-space-the-trouble-with-math\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Space<\/em>: Camosun student tells tale of trouble with math"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Wednesday I wrote my first math test since I gave up on the subject in 1974. I scored 94 percent, and I\u2019m angry.<\/p>\n

For 37 years I knew I was \u201cno good at math,\u201d but after only a month, a little gumption, and lots of help from my math teacher, I receive an almost perfect score? Talk about confusing, but there was no doubt, I knew I\u2019d aced it; what gives?<\/p>\n

Why punish myself with learning math at my advanced age? Because two years ago, during a sit-down with academic advising, I learned the psychology associate degree required similar courses to the ones I was taking for creative writing. I made the decision at that time to pursue the psych classes, for fun. I knew I\u2019d never finish something so academic in nature.<\/p>\n

Now I find myself within three classes of completing the psych degree. What would you do? Quit or go forward? And so, I find myself suffering concurrently with math upgrading, while I limp my way through Biology 102 and tackle Biology 103 in September. Only then will I face off with Psych 201, which has a prerequisite of Grade 11 math. I barely have Grade 9.<\/p>\n

As near as I can figure out, it will take me the next four semesters to get my Grade 11. Continuing on means I interrupt my writing goals for another 18 months to finish one class! Good thing I\u2019m stubborn.<\/p>\n

But how did it happen that I spent all of high school, and my life to date, thinking this way? Worse, I let my kids believe they couldn\u2019t learn math either. \u201cYou\u2019re artists! Writers!\u201d I declared.<\/p>\n

As if it helped, we \u201cknew\u201d we weren\u2019t \u201csmart.\u201d Somewhere along the way I bought into the lie that some of us are either good academically, or we\u2019re not. The truth is, the \u201cgood\u201d part is a combination of the right teacher meeting the right attitude.<\/p>\n

Skills like math and art aren\u2019t signs of intelligence or aptitude in a kid. They are signals of something either going right or wrong in their life. Delving into what\u2019s wrong will foster self-esteem and motivate them to want to learn.<\/p>\n

Camosun\u2019s system of self-paced upgrading and phenomenally patient (and kind) math teachers should be replicated in grade schools.<\/p>\n

Somehow we have to find a way as a society to wait up for those who are lagging behind.<\/p>\n

Something on your mind? Send Open Space submissions (up to 400 words) to editor@nexusnewspaper.com. Include your student number. Thanks!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Wednesday I wrote my first math test since I gave up on the subject in 1974. I scored 94 percent, and I\u2019m angry. For 37 years I knew I was \u201cno good at math,\u201d but after only a month, a little gumption, and lots of help from my math teacher, I receive an almost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-views","category-march-6-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6461"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6471,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6461\/revisions\/6471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}