Dear Parents,
Math is a basic life skill. If you know how the compound interest formula works, you can compute your own loan payment schedule. You can track your own income, expenses and investments.
Math is also a fundamental requirement for the Sciences, Business and a host of other work roles.
So, do your child a favor please:
Study math with them from elementary school on. Get and stay involved. Impart basic numerical skills in elementary school, make sure they understand fractions, percentages, lowest common denominators, equivalent proportions and long division.
Your kid. You make sure they learn math. Don’t leave it to teachers or the system.
If you have stayed involved, they will not need your help with high school math. If you have not, and if they have fundamental weaknesses left over from middle school, they, and you, will find out soon enough. PreCalculus classes will expose these weaknesses because the basic skills are supposed to be ingrained, taken for granted.
In 10th grade, you and your child will also start hearing about college. Ambitions will rise. You and your child will want to take a whole bunch of advanced classes and get A in all of them. It will be stressful. You won’t have time to patiently learn math foundations then.
So do me a favor: take some time from soccer practice, dance recitals, and swim classes in middle school and make sure they know math. You will thank yourself a few years down the road.
Sincerely,
Me.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash