So… remember Grim? Well, it turns out that Grim has issues with learning his multiplication tables. He has about half of them down cold–interestingly enough, what is memorized is intermittent. So, parts of table 4 and parts of table 6 etc… he gets and other parts he “just can’t memorize, it’s too hard!” In fact, the very suggestion that memorization is a key to his success in mathematics leads to full out melt-downs. “There are just so many. . . I will never be able to remember them all!”
What’s a mother to do? In my case, not much, since I’m not the Math and Science teacher around here. No, that job falls to poor IZ. However, it does typically mean that I wake up most Tuesdays and Thursdays to high drama in my house. I don’t like high drama. Period.
IZ likes to blame this on Boy Wonder’s second grade teacher. Mrs. Glassman believed in a more creative approach to math. If you didn’t know the answer to a simple problem in her class, why you could just create your own strategy, your own work around to solve the problem. No need for memorizing those pesky math facts, you could create an answer! Just look for a pattern and when you find it, replicate! A year of this and my pattern obsessed kid was hooked. An addict to the pernicious “work-around.” He’s never gotten clean.
Now IZ is straight from 1951, even if he was born two decades later. And while I tend to be the least linear person in these parts, I do agree with him in this matter. There are just some things, basic things, you need to learn and that means memorization! And what irks IZ more than anything, is not just that Boy Wonder seems completely committed to the fine art of the work-around; it’s that he has elevated it to high art in the first place. The simplicity and beauty, the very eloquence of mathematics is rendered muddied in the abstract permutations Boy Wonder seems dedicated to produce. This creates a sort of number anger that is both volatile and contagious. More often than not I wake up to IZ and Boy Wonder in heated debate at best and full-out warfare at worst.
Today was no exception. I call them “my dog with a bone and my puppy with a bone” for a reason. And the bone they most typically like to fight over is the efficacy of mathematics. People, let me just say here and now, I don’t like mathematics in the first place, I certainly can’t tolerate high drama around it before I’ve had my coffee! Having had enough, I decided to interfere. But instead of my typical, “Why can’t we all just get along? And where’s my coffee?” lament, I opted for a different tack.
I began by trying to convince my child the importance for learning the basics… that creating his own language for his work would make it really difficult in the future to communicate with other mathematicians. Yes, that’s right… I used a language analogy—I’m the English teacher after all. He just looked at me. “Yes, but, I have a better way! It makes more sense to me!” Perhaps… but I’m guessing that all his future college peers are going to feel exactly like IZ, not exactly sympathetic to his antics. Then, it hit me…
Unlike IZ, I don’t blame this on Mrs. Glassman. I think she gave my child a great advantage for his future. She awakened in him his deep desire to be an inventor and it will serve him well… if only he will accept that there are some things he’s going to have to learn old school. No, I fault something far more more insidious.
“Listen,” I begin,“I blame this on Star Trek! You watch that B’Lanna Torres (OMG, I know their NAMES) create work-arounds every time the Starship Voyager gets in trouble! Right?” He nods his head. The tears in his eyes are quickly evaporating and there is a new gleam in them… he’s hooked! Who knew Star Trek would come in so handy?
“Well, it’s like this,” I continue, “When B’Lanna creates a work-around she is still using the basic principles of engineering, she is just doing it in a creative way. She couldn’t do that if she didn’t know the basic rules. In fact, if she didn’t understand, let’s say the Warp Core so well, she couldn’t find new ways of fixing it… Right?”
At this point, let’s just say I’m freakin’ pleased with myself. I have NO idea what I’m saying, but some how, it’s getting through.”
“So, your multiplication tables, are like the Warp Core. They are the essential power behind making the starship fly. . . without it, you are just in dead space. Now, what you’ve been doing is something like having Voyager flying along just fine and B’Lanna deciding to do some experimenting with the Warp Core!” Oh the horror. He looks at me like I have to be kidding, because B’Lanna would never do that!
I continue, “You can imagine how upset Captain Janeway is going to be when her ship grinds to a halt because B’Lanna got a hankering to be creative!” Lots of nods. . . “In fact, Captain Janeway would probably take away B’Lanna’s replicator rations.” That would be bad, we both agree.
And with that, Grim disappeared. We agreed to work on learning his Warp Core basics at night together before bed. Flash cards may be old school, but they are effective! Misery does love company, after all.
I’m no fool. My kid is always going to be looking for the angle. He’s just wired to find new and interesting ways of seeing the world. This is a good thing. But learning the basics of any system is also a good thing. We have to understand the rules we are breaking to fully appreciate the beauty of doing so. Otherwise, we’re only running on intuition and intuition can take us just so far in the world before we bump into reality that the Warp Core basics we found so boring are completely necessary to saving the day. It’s true in writing, in science, in math, and in Space. And if you don’t believe me, you just need to ask my new best friend, B’Lanna Torres.
I love your finds down below, and your strategy was ingenuous. You have to find something that will resonate with the child; Star Trek is one of my favorite shows, except that I’m a Next Generation fan. And I am old-school, but with creativity thrown in there too!
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Heh… Boy Wonder and IZ have been working their way through Voyager on DVD. 😀 ~W
I agree – genius. Well played!~
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Heh… we do what me must, eh? ~W
You did good!!
Some ideas that you may have already thought of: Multiplication Bingo, singing/clapping the multiplication tables, drawing pictures of them, practicing drawing multiplication charts (the patterns in a multiplication chart are pretty cool, and the kiddo can see that once he knows the 1-3’s, 5’s and 10’s, he’s pretty well got it made), beat the timer multiplication….
I did this for two years, and the more of a game it was, the better I fared.
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Most of his problem rests in his belief that he “can’t” memorize. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, at 10 he’s just bumped into something that he can’t simply intuit… and that’s frustrating for him, as he tends to rely on his gift ever so much. The rest of the world has to work at stuff. It’s good for him to struggle a little and develop a work ethic because it won’t always be easy. 😀 ~W
My kids would be forever floundering in “Dead Space”. LOL. I am terrible at math. (Such a right brainer!) I love your parenting style… he’s one lucky kid!
Your postcard idea is genius by the way. Maybe I could sell them to the local shops too.
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There’s a reason all my education has been in the humanities! :D And YIPPEE… I’m glad you are going to make those! Your work is lovely and I’m certain there are lots of stores in town that will adore them! :D ~W
Boy, you’ve got me beat by a mile. What a way to get him interested and thinking another way. I am an absolute failure with any higher math you could possibly throw at me. Once the kids got past the basics they better not have been asking me for help!
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Yeah, see… the back of the flash cards have the answers on them. That would be the side facing ME. ha! 😀 ~W
See, I knew there was a reason I married you. I was too close to the forest to see the trees. Use a Star Trek analogy for my science kid – OF COURSE! (Homer like Doh!) Yes, this is the V-8 I needed. *sigh* My dad and I used to go round and round regarding mathematics and I am sure I left him as frustrated. The apple *so* did not fall far from the tree… Eventually I found my own way and was often correcting the teachers and they were OFTEN wrong. I know that day is coming soon for me. “But see Dad, your paradigm is all wrong – if we tweak this setting and modify the matter / anti-matter mix we can achieve TRANS-WARP drive. Who needs just Warp when you can have TRANS-WARP.” And he’ll be right… and I’ll smile in my heart for the student will have become the master. It isn’t a matter of if – just when.
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Natch! :DÂÂ
i just memorized the horrific things. what with the tears and all. a few years back papa revealed to me that he felt so bad for me at the time, and he just wanted to let me give up and confirm that it all was full of crap and a waste of time. i still don’t know all my 7s and 8s. grr.
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Heh… I’m sorry. Good for your dad for sticking to it! ~W
This is why the calculator was invented – so that Kat could do her 7s and 8s and I could do the 12s. It reminds me of the controversy over the Barbie doll a few years back – the one that said, “Math is hard.” I never thought i would admit this, but Barbie was right! 😀
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Too bad she wasn’t right about Ken. 😀 ~W