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BORING!!!
A reader asked:
I hate math! No matter how much I try to like it, I just can’t. It just bores me to death, which makes me uninterested in it, which makes me bad at it! Do you have any tips on how to lighten it up a little bit and make it more fun?
Professor Homunculus replies:
First, let me say that I think you have a healthy outlook. You seem to know that there is more to math than the boring crap that the psycho-nazi math teachers from hell torture you with, and you are looking for answers.
Have no fear,” the truth is out there.” It is just not in the textbooks. It’s not that math is so boring, it’s that math class is so boring.
You will have to do some actual reading, but it won’t be boring. Start with an old book called “Playing with Infinity.” It is an inexpensive paperback by Dover Press, and it is brilliant. No examples, formulas, or boring stuff. Just plain talk about why math makes sense, and how it uses your imagination.
Make sure you go to a good bookstore and head to the math section, and open lots and lots of math books that don’t look too technical and look at them. There will surely be one that doesn’t intimidate you. I don’t know how old you are, but there is a book that looks like a kid’s book, but really has a ton of good motivating math for adults. It is called “The Number Devil.” It is brilliant.
I am starting a website called www.whyyousuckatmath.com. Check out the first page (the rest aren’t set up yet.) A lot of the following tirade comes from it. It will eventually have decent, fun, interesting stuff on it.
Now, the tirade against the way schools teach math:
Administrators and politicians haul out “the big lie” when they feel pressure to show “results.” The lie is called “standards.” The tests they give test you are harder and harder on less and less meaningful information.
Is that fair to you? Don’t you think you deserve a fair explanation of things that matter, before you are tested on them?
I think we should raise the standards for the bureaucrats first.
Before we trash the teachers too hard, let’s see if we can figure out why Mr. Jones can’t teach.
Mr. Jones went through the same school system, more or less, that you did.
On top of that, almost no one wants teachers to earn the same wages that people who use their knowledge only for themselves earn.
Someone who uses their math degree to write computer code for a company that markets mindless entertainment products which are meant to suck your brains out probably makes a lot more money than Mr. Jones. Furthermore, he doesn’t have a classroom full of snot-nosed spoiled kids to deal with. Nor irate parents who have never even seen their children’s homework assignments, but insist that the teachers “raise the standards.”
So where does the situation stem from?
There are a lot of sources. One way to find the source, is to follow the money. Who gets paid most to do the least? Start with the administration, work you way up to the superintendents, and keep going to the School Boards and the Board of Education. Identify anyone in any of those positions who is not a troublemaker, and you have found a link on the chain that wants power and recognition, but does not want to do the right thing, or even get their hands dirty.
We all know the situation needs work and change. Anyone who isn’t really working for a change is really working not for a change. Anyone who gets paid to tell you what a good job he/she is doing for you is a big-time source of what’s keeping the system from serving you and what’s keeping you serving the system.
Think about this: anyone telling you what a great job they are doing for you is a LIAR. If they were doing a good job, you would be telling them, wouldn’t you? You know which teachers are doing a good job. You know it’s the ones who make you want to work harder. Not the ones who teach to the test. The ones who are honest with you. Not the ones who try to make you feel good about being an idiot. The ones who help you be more intelligent, expose you to more thoughts, teach you to trust your brain, and make you feel good about that.
It is time we held our teachers accountable for being like that. It’s not an easy thing to do, because it’s not fair to hold them accountable for something their bosses don’t understand or value.
One solution for that is to get them some new bosses. Get those suits out of there! Shake them up! Get them to know you are on to them. If enough students and parents take education seriously, we can get rid of the “self-esteem” pushers, and get our kids some meaningful education.
Until parents and students find better ways to understand concepts better than the schools teach them (are you beginning to get cold feet already?) those desk-jockeys will continue to feel comfortable with the status quo.
We have to show them what standards are needed, and hold them to those standards, before they can hold our students to meaningful standards.
How can you start? Obviously not in a school that is not as good as it could be. Here is my greatest tip:
READ BOOKS! Read math books that are not boring textbooks. Get good books from the library. Go to the better teachers after school and ask for extra help. ( Just don’t ask for extra help from a teacher who’s regular help sucks.) Go to a library. Ask a librarian (these are wonderful, underutilized people who don’t grade you!)
We have identified that a huge part of the problem lies with the system. But you are part of the system. If you expect the answer to come from the problem, you may be looking in the wrong direction. You can’t be disappointed if the problem doesn’t solve itself. It is ultimately up to you to bring new input, and hold it up to the system for comparison.
Don’t succumb to the status quo!
Don’t be another victim of the failure of imagination!
Hotcha!
Professor Homunculus
A reader asked:
BORING!!!
I hate math! No matter how much I try to like it, I just can’t. It just bores me to death, which makes me uninterested in it, which makes me bad at it! Do you have any tips on how to lighten it up a little bit and make it more fun?
Professor Homunculus sez:
First, let me say that I think you have a healthy outlook. You seem to know that there is more to math than the boring crap that the psycho-nazi math teachers from hell torture you with, and you are looking for answers.
Have no fear,” the truth is out there.” It is just not in the textbooks. It’s not that math is so boring, it’s that math as a school subject is so boring (they are not the same).
You will have to do some actual reading, but it won’t be boring. Start with an old book called “Playing with Infinity.” It is an inexpensive paperback by Dover Press, and it is brilliant. No examples, formulas, or boring stuff. Just plain talk about why math makes sense, and how it uses your imagination.
Make sure you go to a good bookstore and head to the math section, and open lots and lots of math books that don’t look too technical and look at them. There will surely be one that doesn’t intimidate you. I don’t know how old you are, but there is a book that looks like a kid’s book, but really has a ton of good motivating math for adults. It is called “The Number Devil.”It is a terrific book.
Now, the tirade against the way schools teach math:
Administrators and politicians haul out “the big lie” when they feel pressure to show “results.” The lie is called “standards.” The tests they give test you are harder and harder on less and less meaningful information.
Is that fair to you? Don’t you think you deserve a fair explanation of things that matter, before you are tested on them?
I think we should raise the standards for the bureaucrats first.
Before we trash the teachers too hard, let’s see if we can figure out why Mr. Jones can’t teach.
Mr. Jones went through the same school system, more or less, that you did.
On top of that, almost no one wants teachers to earn the same wages that people who use their knowledge only for themselves earn.
Someone who uses their math degree to write computer code for a company that markets mindless entertainment products which are meant to suck your brains out probably makes a lot more money than Mr. Jones. Furthermore, he doesn’t have a classroom full of snot-nosed, spoiled kids to deal with. Nor irate parents who have never even seen their children’s homework assignments, but insist that the teachers “raise the standards.”
So where does the situation stem from?
There are a lot of sources. One way to find the source, is to follow the money. Who gets paid most to do the least? Start with the administration, work you way up to the superintendents, and keep going to the School Boards and the Board of Education. Identify anyone in any of those positions who is not a troublemaker, and you have found a link on the chain that wants power and recognition, but does not want to do the right thing, or even get their hands dirty.
We all know the situation needs work and change. Anyone who isn’t really working for a change is really working not for a change. Anyone who gets paid to tell you what a good job he/she is doing for you is a big-time source of what’s keeping the system from serving you and what’s keeping you serving the system.
Think about this: anyone telling you what a great job they are doing for you is a LIAR. If they were doing a good job, you would be telling them, wouldn’t you? You know which teachers are doing a good job. You know it’s the ones who make you want to work harder. Not the ones who teach to the test. The ones who are honest with you. Not the ones who try to make you feel good about being an idiot. The ones who help you be more intelligent, expose you to more thoughts, teach you to trust your brain, and make you feel good about that.
It is time we held our teachers accountable for being like that. It’s not an easy thing to do, because it’s not fair to hold them accountable for something their bosses don’t understand or value.
One solution for that is to get them some new bosses. Get those suits out of there! Shake them up! Get them to know you are on to them. If enough students and parents take education seriously, we can get rid of the “self-esteem” pushers, and get our kids some meaningful education.
Until parents and students find better ways to understand concepts better than the schools teach them (are you beginning to get cold feet already?) those desk-jockeys will continue to feel comfortable with the status quo.
We have to show them what standards are needed, and hold them to those standards, before they can hold our students to meaningful standards.
How can you start? Obviously not in a school that is not as good as it could be. Here is my greatest tip:
READ BOOKS! Read math books that are not boring textbooks. Get good books from the library. Go to the better teachers after school and ask for extra help. ( Just don’t ask for extra help from a teacher who’s regular help sucks.) Go to a library. Ask a librarian (these are wonderful, underutilized people who don’t grade you!)
We have identified that a huge part of the problem lies with the system. But we are part of the system. If you expect the answer to come from the problem, you may be looking in the wrong direction. You can’t be disappointed if the problem doesn’t solve itself. It is ultimately up to you to bring new input, and hold it up to the system for comparison.
Don’t succumb to the status quo!
Don’t be another victim of the failure of imagination!
Hotcha!
Professor Homunculus
so true
TRUE
Its still boring :)
Nightmare,
I’m sorry you feel that way. You’ve obviously never been exposed to real math. That is a shame. Much worse though, is to re-inforce your own negative feelings about a subject that more open-minded people have used to explore our universe with. They have gone places (the moon for example) that people who are in denial about the value of math can’t even imagine exploring.
The pronouncement, “…boring!” on a subject that has fascinated the greatest minds in history says more about the sayer than the subject.
I hope you reconsider. Not for me – personally I don’t care what kind of mistaken ideas people I don’t know have – but for you – because you can increase your appreciation of the world around you by knowing the language it speaks – the grammar of which is math and logic.
i hate maths too well its not that i would want to do without it its just i wish we had computers to work on too so we can experience doing the work for ourself instead of copying like a pack of dogs is that too much to ask i bet if teachers asked students to vote they would be suprised with the computer vote hitting the roof! (also the people in it make me feel alot more under the weather)
Brian, you sound like a douche bag. You don’t have the right to condescend to somebody as to what they do or do not find interesting. Everyone has the right to like what the want.
Also I hope you get a therapist and deal with your own shame rather than project it onto others online.
peace.
Brian (reluctantly) answers:
Aj,
You sound like you need a nap. After you wake up sober, why don’t you re-read what I actually wrote, so that you might understand it.
It is fascinating how a person who apparently got into college can make so many false assumptions and then tear into someone he knows nothing about, beginning with an insult and ending with a mealy-mouthed “peace.”
I don’t really want to print your comment, nor debate someone who hasn’t bothered to understand the premise, but I thought it might be enlightening to readers to see what kind of minds we are up against when we put out so much free material, only in the hopes to help those who insist on making themselves helpless in the face of mathematics or any thing else which requires effort to understand.
Once again, people like you are the proof that “no good deed goes unpunished.”
Fortunately, there are hundreds that send e-mails of thanks for every whinging crank.
My heart goes out to well-meaning and well-qualified teachers who have to face students who feel entitled to flaunt their ignorance.
MATHS IS SO BORING!!!!
I never knew that one subject could be so confusing and yet hold so many misteries.
Highschool maths with the NUT of a teacher seriously effects the brain of a young teenager going onto universtiy who of course could be a maths genious but never knew it because of the crazy know it all teacher..
You walk into a class room and it would be normal to see nearly half the class asleep from the boring textbook lectures!!!
Please someone just change the way we are taught PLEASE for the sake of the future generation!!
Maree,
I know what you mean. Most of my math teachers in school were psycho-nazi math teachers from hell. But it’s not the subject – like you say, it’s the way that it’s taught. Unfortunately there is something about math that sometimes attracts strange personality-types. They are usually the ones that think math is rigid like they are.
Real math on the other hand is magical and flexible. There is another type of teacher that is inspired and creative. You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find one, though, I’ll admit. Just don’t give up on math.
Get your hands on “The Art of the Infinite,” by Kaplan, or “The Art of Mathematics” by Jerry P. King, and then write back after you’ve started them.
You can’t let bad teachers screw you up forever. You have to take things into your own hands at some time.
Remember, Einstein said, “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”
Often I feel as if I could break out of my mathematical slump, if I were to find a group of people that treated math as a hobby and not as a chore. Universities just feel like public school for adults – I hate what our system of obligatory public schooling has done to us and what it’s done to my own motivation. It’s almost like I’ve become bored with learning because I’m so bored with the feeling that I can’t learn math beyond a certain point.
I’ll either figure it out or I won’t, but I’m glad to read a real mathematician’s thoughts on the overall situation hitting so close to home. Good read.
(at any rate, I still love working with “mathemagicians” as I tend to call them..)
Well, you need to take AP courses and SATs to be able to even think about going to college these days, and it seems like teachers only teach to prepare for these tests. Now who publishes AP and SAT? Collegeboard. It has a monopoly on American secondary education, so maybe that could be a problem not just for math, but the secondary school systems across America.
Surely people have different interests though… that’s what makes us us. That’s why you have people in the field of graphic design, people who are architects, people who are mathematicians… I’m not saying that maths can be made less boring, or even facinating to those who’ll find it so, but it doesn’t seem right to me than you can dictate to someone what they should and shouldn’t find boring – even if and especially if they have actually investiagted and put into practice what you mentioned in your article.
Of course you have a point, but I am not “dictating” anything. I’m pointing out that math is not inherently boring. It choice people make. If someone decides that math is boring to them, it says more about them than it does about math.
I also find it improbable that people who give math a fair chance, without choosing to believe it is boring in the first place, could find it boring. They don’t have to become fascinated by it, but to continue to insist that it is boring would be pretty improbable, I think. It’s not the experience of hundreds of underpriviledged pupils who I have taught that ended up telling me they loved math and did much better at it then when they learned “the school” way.
Some didn’t end up liking it, naturally. Their choice.
Ah, I think I get what you’re saying. My apologies.
Personality’s a funny thing… I agree with what you’re saying that if someone finds math boring – even when they’ve learned “true math” as it were – it says more about the person themselves, but in what way? I mean, I’m pretty sure people have natural inherent personilties disregarding their attitudes that have been prehaps shaped by their experiences, so would it not be possible for someone to find maths boring, or prehaps uninteresting, anyway?
Cee,
i think we’re making some progress here. I thought about this a lot yesterday. What I basically think is that most things are not inherently boring. If even one person finds it interesting, then there is some potential for it being interesting.
If someone has been introduced to “real math” (of course that’s a subjective term, but I think we know what we mean, here) I don’t think they could find it boring. They may legitimately have no interest in it for various reasons, but they would have to admit that someone could find it interesting.
It’s a matter of taste, at that level. Some people don’t like Brussels sprouts. Some people love them. That doesn’t mean Brussels sprouts taste bad. It means that some people have no taste for them. And that’s fine. There’s no moral judgement about that. People can find math uninteresting, but that is their personal taste, not something math is responsible for. They may love languages, and someone else finds languages “boring.” Does that mean that languages are boring? If they were, how come some people find them fascinating?
We can have certain feelings towards something, and that is our prerogative. But that doesn’t mean that that something is how we feel about it. That something is the object, and we are subjective about it.
It’s the people that have never tried Brussels sprouts, or only had them from a can, or poorly prepared, and dictate that “Brussels sprouts taste bad!” who are, well, idiots. Or immature. Or ignorant. I think that would be the majority of the people who think they hate Brussels sprouts.
There are many degrees of each, but one thing I think can be definite – “Math is boring” still says more about the person than about math. It says nothing about math. Math doesn’t care what we think. It doesn’t bore.
By the way, I’m not referring to “school math,” as a subject. If it is taught poorly, it can be boring as hell. But that has nothing to do with math.