Normally,
we are taught a bunch of "rules" without much of an
Idea of why those rules are the rules. In other words, you do not feel
like you have anything to do with them, that they are arbitrary.
I call this "not
being math enfranchised." Enfranchisement is an interesting
concept. To be enfranchised, basically means to be able to take part
in something. There is a difference between being entitled to do something,
and being enfranchised to do it.
For example, you
can be entitled to vote, but if you are blocked from getting to a voting
booth on election day, you are disenfranchised.
Along the same lines, you
can be allowed to go to school, but if your teacher is lousy, your school
environment is rotten, your homelife doesn't allow you to focus on schoolwork
when you need to, or anything else prevents you from taking advantage
of what school is supposed to teach you, you are disenfranchised.
Isn't it evil to require
someone to do something, but not effectively help them learn how to
do it? That is just what happens in so many schools today.
Let's face it, sometimes
the schools come through, but you still "don't get it." Some
of us were just too lazy or disinterested. But now you know the time
has come when you would like to fill in this educational gap in your
life.
So what do you do if your
math-education has fallen through the cracks?
You can start
by learning Addition Mojo (using tens-complements) until you really
get it. Within a day or two you should be able to add from left to right,
instantly, without pencil, paper, or the dreaded calculator. By that
time, some more Addition Mojo lessons should be up, and you can turbo-charge
your addition skills. In very little time, you will be making more sense
out of how you do math, and can progress to Multiplication Mojo.
If you are using this site
to teach young children math, go right to the abacus lessons. Read the
abacus pages, and start showing a child how an abax works. This is probably
the best all-around manipulative method to get a sense for numbers that
you can use.
Eventually,
there will be full abacus lessons, here, too.
