zozee

Excuse the typos. My quilting is as bad as my keyboarding skills, trust me.

Jan in VA

It's easy to relate to your witty son, poor guy. Lands, I hated algebra! My complaint was, "How in the world can 'n' and 'x' and 'y' and 'a' and 'b' have *anything* to do with numbers?? Letters are for words and language, numbers are for math and figuring! Right?"

At 68 I admit there have been few (obvious) times I've wished I knew my algebra; but geometry has served me over and over. Because it is "written" with words and THEN math, I got it, somehow!

I hope he enjoys all the math he is exposed to in his school career!

Jan in VA

kyquiltlover1942

When my daughter was in first grade, she came home from school in tears. Seems the teacher told them they would starting learning division the next day. Daughter said, her brain was full and there was nothing she wanted to forget. This was 38 years ago, and 3 or 4 degrees ago.

Retired Fire Chief

I hated math in school and did poorly because I disliked it so much. Much later when I became a fire inspector and investigator it was necessary to calculate areas, friction loss, burn times, etc. I wished I had paid more attention when I had a chance - live and learn.

pasovasz

Dealing with frustration is part of Life. Your son sounds like he has a talent for Math. Maybe a more advanced Math class would be good for him?
So many of our educational activities are "Brain Games".
What good are sports if not to train your brain and body? Some people enjoy these different Life activities. That is one reason our educational system offers so many opportunities- to find out what you are good at, what you enjoy and how to increase our skills for a productive Lifestyle.

Seaside gal

Your son has a delightful sense of humor and sounds very bright.

I hated algebra. I think a lot of my problem was I feared the teacher and was afraid to ask questions. She was a real meanie.

mumzer

Don't use short hand either.

tessagin

I hated math. I wasn't bad in it except for the long division. I had no problem going forward but going backward was hard. Amazing what we don't think what we need yet we use it all the time. We use it in business and craft.

Neesie

I had the same problem as your DH but now understand why we had to show our work. I had a hard time memorizing the steps, but could come up with the right answer, by letting the problem twist around in my head, for a few minutes. When asked how I got the answer, it was hard to explain the "twisting" process, so my teachers probably thought I had somehow copied the answer from somewhere. I had to force myself to learn the proper steps. What I realize now, is that by learning the steps, I was teaching my brain to be more methodical. Well, trying to teach it, anyway.

MaryMo

Thanks, Neesie, for your insight. Math (and algebra in particular) teaches our brain to process in a logical manner. Have anybody noticed that many young people have to use a calculator for the simplest problems? Forget complicated ones .... their googling those answers. Yes, I did well in math with some hiccups but philosophy was entirely another matter.