Math Tutoring is a Lesson in Patience.

Photo by Dan Cristian Pădureț on Unsplash

Math is humbling. Teaching math to students is humbling-er.

I’ve been helping my son with his math assignments. I meant, I’ve been “learning alongside” my son during our father-son math sessions.

I remember skating by with math when I was his age (8th grade). I don’t remember being good at it. In fact, I remember asking why we had to learn it. I could not connect math with any real world use. But that was 8th grade me. Today “me” thinks differently.

When I teach (read: learn) math with my son, I realize how important math is. Anything that’s challenging has application in the real world.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

1. Patience. Learning math requires patience. Teaching it, even more. We all have limits to our attention span. The younger, the shorter. Teaching a challenging subject to a young student will teach you to be patient. If you’re not, they will lose interest.
2. Khan Academy is awesome. This is a great resource for parents and students. I am very grateful for Khan’s way of explaining difficult subjects. An aspiring student can learn anything with resources like this.
3. Problem-Solving. Math is the avenue through which the student learns “problem-solving”. Some problems involve many steps. The student who can step back and see the zoomed out view of the problem will do well.
4. Logic. Math teaches us logic. The equations are the premises. The solutions, the conclusion. To get to a conclusion, the student must first untangle the premises.
5. You learn the subject better when you must teach it. Teaching begets learning. To be an effective teacher, you must first know the subject in minute detail.

Math is a great tool for general learning. I now understand why the curriculum is the way it is. At least, that’s my interpretation.