My Child is Failing Math, What Do I Do?
“I don’t understand my teacher, mom.”
“What is the point in learning this?”
“Math is dumb”
Have you ever heard your child say one of these things? Did you try to offer help or motivation and nothing changed? A child misunderstanding math at some point in their education is one of the most commonly shared situations among teens and young adults. For some, it may be the result of a learning disability/restriction and for others, it may seem like a mystery. “Why can Alex finish the test first and get an A? I only get a few answers correct that I guessed on?” The frustration from being unable to do math while the school system keeps pushing you forward regardless only leads to fatigue and resistance towards learning math. Seeing your child work through these feelings is only another level of stress we may find ourselves in as parents. We want our kids to succeed–to be better and smarter than we were. We want them to be successful.
In working with kids, teens, and adults in developing math skills, I’ve learned one universal truth about success in math. It is not about the end result that makes someone successful in math; It is all about the skills obtained WHILE learning math that make someone successful. Society and education has engraved in us that your final grade is what proves your success in math. Let me challenge this concept by comparing two students.
---Student 1:
Math prodigy, understands algebra instantly. Able to solve multi-step equations effortlessly without writing anything down. Never has issues or struggles with learning math related items.
Student 2:
Needs to retake all math classes before finally passing. Needs extra help after school to be able to stay caught up with the rest of their classmates. Works through struggles by relying on parental support and encouragement.
---
As a parent, you may hope that your child is Student 1 or at least hope that your child is not Student 2. You also would probably love your child regardless of what Student they were in this comparison. If we were to look at how these two children grow up, we would very likely see that Student 2 is more successful. But, how is that possible?
Student 2 will have eventually learned math even if it took longer and required working through more mental barriers. AND that is exactly why they are likely to be more successful. Student 2 learned how to face adversity with determination. Student 2 learned how to ask for help when it was needed. Student 2 learned how to rely on others for support. These are extremely important skills that many of us, as adults, have yet to learn to do well.
So, how do you help your child when they are failing math?
You support them. You encourage them. You tell them that the process is refining them into strong individuals. Learning math has never been about being able to go outside and calculate the slope or trajectory of a ball you throw. Learning math is about developing perseverance, developing logical understanding, and encouraging abstract/critical thinking. Don’t be too hard on yourself or your child when they are struggling. We all struggle with different things. Let’s learn to encourage each other, to work through the struggles together, and appreciate the process that comes with learning new things.
Are We Thinking Less in a World of AI?
There appears to be little to no disagreement that technological advances over history have created opportunities and raised the base level of our collective intelligence as a people. There do, however, appear to be many disagreements as to if these advances have outweighed the costs. At the forthcoming of new technologies, there is always an abundance of skepticism that dissipates over time for the many…and festers in that time for a few. We are at a perceptional crossroad for a new technology: AI.
“Write a 5 paragraph essay on a childhood memory. Make it about my family having a barbecue and relate it to lessons learned for the following prompt: [copy/paste school prompt]”
***16.35 seconds later***
[copy/paste the text into a Word document; save; close program]
This 2-5 minute process is all it takes now to get your work done in school. What do you learn using this process? The only thing you could learn is that school is wasting your time. The alternative to the above action is to spend 2-5 hours across a couple days to outline, write, and type the paper by hand (and this is assuming you have an idea, motivation, and time to do that). Recent history has shown us that the amount of time we feel we have seems to be less every year. So again, why would anyone choose the second option to complete the work?
The response you have to this question is what determines how you feel about AI and its “benefits.” On one hand, the work you are asked to do (that you really never cared to do in the first place) is now complete in a fraction of a fraction of the time! On the other hand, you didn’t, actually, learn anything useful for your future. Society and the education system will say you failed yourself…and they are not completely wrong.
The moment you use AI to complete work for you is the same moment where you decide (consciously or unconsciously) that the work asked of you is not worth your time or future. In some cases, that may very much be true! But, I implore you to consider that you may not know what skill you missed out on that could be beneficial to your future success. So what do we do? If AI is the problem, we should remove it.
RIght?
Absolutely not!
The problem is not and never will be AI. The problem has been and will always be how we use AI. AI is a tool and, like any other tool, we have to learn how to use it. To be more precise, we need to learn WHEN to use it. Before AI, people have always found a way around doing tasks they don’t care to do or to simply accept a lesser end product. Now that we have accessible and powerful AI, it is so tantalizing to utilize it to get through our tasks with ease and proficiency. I don’t advocate for people to avoid AI or punish those who use it. I advocate for people to take a deep look at how we can use it and when to use it to produce smarter people and give all of us more time for the things we care about.
Fun fact: This article took 40 minutes to construct and another 25 minutes to edit