Oh no it's maths!

I accepted long ago that I'm crap at maths. Not so crap that I didn't get my maths O'Level 30yrs ago, but I pulled out all the stops just long enough to get through the exams then rejoiced that I would never again have to grapple with algebra.

Or so I thought.

Unfortunately, my eldest does not appear to have inherited his father's maths skills. I'm not sure why passing on maths follows the lowest common denominator always favouring the side of the family that is worst at it. Or it does in my family, anyway.

My father read maths at university - Cambridge no less - but did he share his gift with his 3 offspring? Did he fiddlesticks, he kept it all for himself and his children had to fight their way through arduous, incomprehensible homework and crappy maths results for years. My mother is crap at maths. Nuff said.

So, following the maternal line, my eldest has inherited his mother's maths ability, poor lad. I was so hoping he'd be spared such punishment, especially here in France where so much store is laid by being able to do it. If you can't do maths, you're a loser.

One of the disadvantages of being divorced is that you suddenly become the sole on-hand source of help with homework. This is why my eldest comes to me with his problems, me whose heart sinks at the sight of an 'x'. I go sort of blind, my mind recognising trouble and so shuts all doors and windows, locking everything firmly down.

The only way I can hope to help is to make a huge effort to open everything up again, and try and see the problem without running for the hills. It hadn't been too bad in the past as he was young enough not to have encountered too much that was as recognisable as Chinese. As he gets older, however, we are entering dangerous territory.

Today he had algebra, with lots of n's and x's and working things out. I willed him away to work it out himself, but it was akin to Chinese for him - how I do understand! So it was that I heard the fateful words "Mum, can you help me? I don't understand a THING!"

At the time I was trying to watch a slide show of my brother's photos of Tunisia and didn't take kindly to having to tear myself away for the greater good. However, having squinted blindly at the questions, tried to work out what could possibly be vaguely something like an answer, I came up with my best offer. He bought it, understood it, and filled out the paper. It kinda looked right, but we'll see...

So there are two conclusions: 1) I'm not totally crap at maths, just almost totally; 2) my son is worse. I can see trouble ahead.

If it gets really dire, I'll call in the heavy mob. No, not their father, he tends to react like my father when I couldn't do my maths homework. He got all cross and then very cross and then livid and it just made everything worse. No, I'll ask my TWDB for whom maths holds much less mystery, and, equally importantly, he is able to withstand stupidity and incomprehension for a slightly longer period - at least 5mins.

I hope my youngest is better at it. I'm not sure I can cope with ten years of maths angst.

Double Maths

I feel vindicated. For years I spent hours enduring my mathematician father telling me the answer wasn't the important thing in maths, it was how you got to it that counted. It was all very well for him, he could do it. I couldn't. I wanted him to give me the answer so I could see where we were going and understand the underlying routing. Would he give it to me? Not on your life. Did I understand it any better because he explained in mathematical gobbledigook how to solve a particular problem? Er, no. I couldn't see the general direction, didn't understand whether an answer was likely to be right or not, and wondered hopelessly when I would ever need to use most of it.

My father read Maths at university (Cambridge), but, like many who have a natural understanding of maths, was completely incapable of explaining it to dunderheads like me. Was his talent shared with any of this three children? Nope. We all struggled, although we did get that oh so important maths 'O' level; the gateway to university for some reason.

Today I read in the Times that Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford says it's important to keep children interested in maths, to make it relevant to everyday life and to show them the big picture. He suggests teaching it in a similar way to music:

You have to teach all the scales and arpeggios, but first you have to play the finished piece of music to the pupil so they know what they are aiming for. To inspire and excite you have to show the big picture of what they are aiming for first even if they don’t yet understand how to get there.

Ha! You see? Give me the big picture (and the answer) and there'll be a vague chance I might be able to look at the problem without my eyes immediately glazing over, my brain seizing up, or a knee-jerk 'I can't do it' reaction, or even a stupid answer to 6+7. (I had a mental block over this for some time, when I was a wee thing, and it used to incense my father, which caused further blockage, a stricken brain, and wild guessing.)

I see similar reactions in my eldest. Poor lad, he doesn't seem to have inherited his dad's mathematical skill either. Why do these mathematicians keep things for themselves? Selfish buggers.

Pr du Sautoy suggests that learning a musical instrument helps in the understanding of maths. I can't say I agree with him. I learned three and it made no difference at all. I reckon it helps those that are already good at maths to get even better. It's a very insular gift.

However, he does seem to have some very interesting thoughts on relevant maths, such as the idea that adolescents could be enthused by stories of mathematical discovery, the magic of prime numbers with examples of these in Nature. I do agree that there is some fascinating stuff to learn about maths out there... (eek), and I even enjoy watching the tele show 'Numb3rs', but school maths is dire, 'O'level maths was ghastly and I decided that if I never saw another maths problem again as long as I lived after I'd got through it, it would be a day too soon.

Maybe my youngest will be the new maths champ in our family... I know it would make his dad happy at least....