What if I Fail 9th Grade Math? (Part 6)

This is a continuation from the previous posts:

• What if I Fail 9th Grade Math? (Part 1)
• What if I Fail 9th Grade Math? (Part 2)
• What if I Fail 9th Grade Math? (Part 3)
• What if I Fail 9th Grade Math? (Part 4)
• What if I Fail 9th Grade Math? (Part 5)

At the end of the previous post, a reader wrote in:

“i have the same problem. i am in grade 12. i used to grasp those integers, algebra and simple geometric problems with lot of ease and faster than others. then i started falling down not only in grades but also in work ethic. now i got 70 in grade 12 and thats the highest ive gotten in high school, with lowest being 53 in grade 11. I am not able to break the 80 barrier and 70 is a great struggle. I know it isn’t about marks, but in university i need to maintain a nice gpa and need the idiotic marks. I have a stigma “i suck at math” stigma and can never get A, because after i got 60 in grade 9, 10 11 and 12 ive been frustrated and slow to understand concepts. now ppl tell me that my brain is too old to improve. im not a kid, so obv i don’t believe BS like that. But what do I do? Do i Start from grade 9 scratch and work my way up as if I just graduated from grade 8? Or what??”

Professor Homunculus sez:

Tommy,

Well, you’re on the right track. What kind of idiot would tell anyone they’re too old to learn anything? Only someone who’s own brain has prematurely calcified. Modern research has shown that it’s time to get rid of that myth.

I’m going to suggest that there is a possibility (just a possibility, OK, I don’t know your situation well enough to be sure at all) that age is related, but in a totally different way.

You’re at a great age in life when you probably are developing your mind in fantastic, independent ways. Your interests are probably turning to things other than algebra.

You also may be noticing things about how the world seems to work that are a little disappointing to how you imagined. Like, say, that things aren’t fair, and that adults don’t always have your best interests at heart.

At that stage, sitting in a boring-as-hell math class and learning axioms and theorems that are presented as something to be accepted and learned by rote is not exactly what thrills your imagination.

If that’s the case, let me make a suggestion – it may be time to realize that math is not what you are being taught in school. School is basically there to make little drones out of unsuspecting kids, and to disappoint new wide-eyed teachers who think their chosen profession is there to help them change the world for the better.

Because most school systems have bought into the drill-and-kill, inculcate-and-test mentality, the art and romance of real math gets killed so bad it has to get buried twice.

So what can you do? You have to re-kindle your math mojo from an external spark.

Once you’ve done that – once you’ve discovered (or re-discovered) the real mental-magical journey of math, you’ll find a new interest in math class, I suspect. That interest may not be a new-found appreciation for math class, though. Let me explain:

Unfortunately I didn’t find my math mojo until deep into my thirties. I wish I had gotten the math-bug while I was still in school, though. That way I could have played a little game – put a bug up the system’s ass.

What I mean by that is that while suffering through the unit about quadratic equations, I wish I had gotten some information from books (not textbooks) about them, and learned about some uses for them (maybe some unconventional ones) and then when listening to the next boring lecture about them in class, enjoyed the realization that I was actually becoming the kind of person who actively investigated my world, instead of being one of the drones in the front of the class, sucking up to the teacher, getting the great grades, and understanding nothing, only to forget the few crumbs of informations that I’d gathered by the time the tests were over.

There is a crazy old book that was one of the pillars of the “self-help” movement in it’s early stages, in the middle of the last century. It was called “Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude” by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone. In it there was a term that I think hits the nail on the head about how you can take something that bugs you and make something good out of it – it’s called “inspirational dissatisfaction.”

Inspirational dissatisfaction isn’t just complaining about things that bug you. It’s taking them and making something out of them. Ever see “Rocky?” (God, I can’t believe I am going to reference some Stallone trash.) Remember that scene where he decides to compete, and goes into “hyper-training” mode? He was dissatisfied with his situation, but made the choice to embrace the work and sacrifice that would make him better.

A more subtle (and less pop-crap referenced) example would be some of the works by great authors. At the moment, I’m thinking of Hermann Hesse, and the wonderful book, “Demian.” I don’t think I’ll spoil it for you here. It’s a great read, and you’re at the perfect age for it. Get a cheap paperback copy of it. (Hesse also wrote one of the most important books concerning public education ever written, “Beneath the Wheel” (“Unterm Rad”).) These books are almost a hundred years old. Good luck finding something as well-written or meaningful today.

Ostensibly, Demian has nothing to to with math. It has everything to do with learning, growing up, and mojo, though. It’s on my top 10 books of all time. (But so are 20 other of Hesse’s books!)

While we’re on books, may I suggest that you run, not walk, to a library, and try to find any of the books by Martin Gardner? He is a wonderful magician/mathmatician, and a fantastic writer. He is truly a legend in his own time among his colleagues. Check out a book of his called, “Mathematical Carnival.” He’s got many other great ones out, but that is a good place to start. It’s about weird math and magic. It’s not like anything else you’re likely to have read about math. That book just may give you the spark you need to see that math is not what they’ve been beating you over the head with in Math I, II, or III.

Now let’s get more concrete. You may have to go back to the grade 8 books as far as your classwork goes. Maybe not. Brainstorm what you know and what you don’t know. (See What if I Fail 9th Grade Math? (Part 5) for how to do that). I can’t tell you the answer to that here, and no one can really tell you as well as you can figure it out yourself if you brainstorm it.

But remember, get yourself some kind of motivational math book to guide you through the BS. Don’t get bogged down in the textbooks – they are killers. You need some other kind of book to get you into the “soul” of math.

So here’s a concrete suggestion - Get your butt out to a bookstore and order a copy of Robert and Ellen Kaplan’s “The Art of the Infinite.” It’s in paperback, so it shouldn’t set you back too much. The reason I suggest you buy this one, instead of getting it from a library, is that if you invest a few of your own bucks in it you’ll be more likely to actually read it.

I can’t recommend that book highly enough. It may change your whole view of math. It should. I first discovered it yesterday, and it saved me a lot of work and research. I wanted to write one of the greatest math books ever, which would help show the beauty, adventure, romance and history of math, and what it all means for your mind and the development of mankind. The Kaplans have saved me that trouble! (Get that book!)

On to the work-ethic. Hmmm. You came to the wrong place for that one. The only advice I can give you is to not beat yourself up for your perceived work-ethic problems. I’m sure enough other people do that for you. You obviously care enough about your mind and future to seek help, so you are way ahead of the crowd on that one. Maybe you should check out “Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude” by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone. It’s been in print longer than I’ve been alive, so there’s got to be something to it.

Tommy, thanks for writing in, and getting me to talk about this stuff this morning. I truly hope this helps. Please comment again in a few days on this post and let us know how you are doing. We’re all rootin’ for ya!

Hotcha!

- Professor Homunculus