Eternal Math Woes
by Jocelyn PawlickiFor as long as I can remember math has been my most dreaded subject. Through all my years in school, up until recently, I have never received a score greater than an 82% on any graded math paper.
I, unfortunately, am a proprietress of math anxiety.
During all of my school years I received exceptional grades in every other subject; math was my nemesis. It was third grade when my math book seemingly declared its discontent with me. Literally, every problem seemed to be a chore. When approaching a problem containing fractions, I was, in simple terms, stumped. I did not really care how many pieces of a pie I could divvy up between friends.
I had an easy answer for this problem: put pie in the middle of the table and give each friend a fork; everyone would get their share.At my young age, I wasn’t allowed to use the stove, so being able to double a recipe truly did not interest me. As a matter of fact, I still have a hard time doubling a recipe. Not only did those problems give me a hard time, but it took me an eternity to memorize my times tables, and my addition just didn’t add up. Oh, and the word problems! Did they really need to be so confusing? Never had I experienced a subject so testing, so demanding, so foreign. I simply couldn’t grasp the language of math.
As I got older, my math skills, along with my teacher’s patience, continued to decrease. In an earnest effort, I tried to keep up with the lesson during the duration of my math class, but with fleeting desire I found myself drifting into La-La-Land. When my teacher would call on me I would spurt out some random answer, and he would suggest that I had no idea what was going on. I didn’t. Instead, I thought to myself, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t listening. Could you repeat the entire lesson, please?”
In high school, I found myself in the “harder” math classes; Algebra and Geometry proved to be an even more daunting task. Alas, there was only one math teacher in my high school. Along with my preconceptions of the class, I am sure my teacher had a few of his own. In reality I have no idea how I passed those classes.Don’t get me wrong, my high school math teacher was a very intelligent man. Nevertheless, he was unable to craft an ingenious way to simplify things for me. So, I spent most of my time drawing in class, or, dare I say, sleeping. When I did ask for help we spent about a half hour thoroughly confusing each other, and I walked home feeling more perplexed than before.
This awful math confusion has haunted my adult years. Given that I have chosen nursing as my desired career path, it is absolutely necessary that I understand this alien language. I am also the proud mother of a ten-year-old son, who will soon be in Algebra. Thankfully, he is great at math, but with some much needed practice and a little hope, I will be able to help him when he gets stuck. Now in college, I intend on making good use of caring teachers and learning aids available to me. I am confident I will be able to achieve a long sought-after dream: mathematical success!