Learning mathematics is a struggle at some level for all of us. Rather than seeing this struggle as something to avoid, we can see it as one of the most valuable things offered to our students. Mathematics offers them an opportunity to learn how to work through the struggle, how to bring to it what they have, how to find and use the things they need. Regardless of their perceived aptitudes or gifts in mathematics, they can learn that they have within themselves what they need to meet this challenge.
Struggling in mathematics is not the enemy, any more than sweating is the enemy in basketball; it is part of the process, and a clear sign of being in the game. Math asks our students to think in ways they are not used to thinking; they will be asked to look at the obvious in ways they’re not accustomed to, and then we’ll ask them to explore the not-so-obvious in similar ways. A rigor of thinking and a clarity of expression is demanded that will stretch them beyond familiar styles. It will also require an honest pursuit; there really are no shortcuts.
Children learn many things in school, encompassing not just what they’ve learned, but how they’ve learned. Maneuvering through struggles in school, young people learn how to meet challenges for which there is no map, and no shortcut. Life will present them with struggles, whether we wish this to be so or not. How they approach the struggle of mathematics will affect how they approach the struggles in life.
The opportunity begins when the struggle begins.
Excerpts and synopsis by Audrey Weeks (www.calculusinmotion.com)
from an article by Suzanne Sutton in “Bulletin” (Feb. 1997) –
a periodical for the National Association of Secondary School Principals
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