A secret.Middle School math can be boring.
The truth is out. It can be really
boring. Fractions and ratios and least common multiples and lowest common
denominators and cubic centimeters and square inches and perpendicular bisectors and
decimal division and solving for the missing variables and upper quartiles and lower
quartiles and median and mode and ......
To be honest, not everyone gets excited by such
things.
And yet, I will tell you another secret: The stronger your middle school math skills, the happier your life will
be.
That's right: happier. And
healthier.
And luckier in love.
Trust me on this. The power of a mind
that can simplify complex fractions or factor a wicked polynomial knows no bounds.
So what's a parent, or student, or teacher
to do, when faced with the two conflicting realities: present boredom and long-term bliss?
Tell the truth.
And take a detour.
First of all, it is sometimes hard
and sometimes boring. In our efforts to attract our kids to math, we haven't always
told the truth. "It's fun!" we tell them, when it isn't
always. "It's everywhere!" we tell them, when the truth is, they may go
from now till next Tuesday and a year from next Tuesday without bumping into a complex
fraction or a polynomial waiting to be factored. We can admit this to our kids,
without losing them.
But still they need these skills.
They need tough math. Good, solid, and deep.
And ironically, one way to strengthen these
skills and connect them to math is with a detour.
Middle school math may be boring, but
higher math isn't.
We mistakenly assume that we can't
appreciate math we cannot understand, but this isn't so. One of the best things you
can do for your younger students is to let them see a glimpse of the math the big guys
do.
We do this all the time in other things. We take our
little leaguers to a pro game. We take our young musicians to concerts. We
read them stories of Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson.
We can do the same with math. We don't need to
understand the higher parts of math to show them to our children.
We will offer you many ideas for this, throughout the site,
and in our products. In fact, that's why we started making these products in the
first place. Kids need to see the bigger picture in math, just as they need to see
that basketball is more than dribbling. Sometimes a detour is the best way to get
where we're going.
Read them stories of the great mathematicians, and their
discoveries. Take them to science museums. Wonder together.
Get them our Middle School
Math-in-a-Bag. It is designed to do exactly these things. Activity cards to get
them thinking and doing and playing with ideas that build their competence, skills, and
understanding. Intriguing detours that get them further into math - solidly - seeing the
bigger picture, and therefore understanding it more and enjoying it more.
Enroll them in the NewtonsWindow
Math Magazine. Each month, they'll receive an (ad-free) issue filled with
mathematical things that engage them, catch their interest, show them the reasons and
connections and history, and get them thinking - the biggest antidote to boredom.
And keep visiting the site, we have many, many new ideas
coming that will give them a glimpse of why the tedious is worth the struggle, and what
lies beyond.
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