School Age

One of the most memorable things I learned in high school came not from a teacher or a textbook, but from a poster in a classroom. It said: “Dropping math? Say goodbye to 82 jobs.” Having decided many years earlier that there are two kinds of people in the world — those who can do math and those who can’t — my first thought was: “Well, I guess it’s goodbye, then.”

That probably sounds familiar to Donna Doerksen, a Burnaby, BC, mom of two who, as a teenager, ruled out a career in medicine because she was a “failure” in math. Still, there was no getting away from the M-word when her daughter Zoë ran into learning difficulties back in grade three. Suddenly, the sworn mathphobe had to dive back into a sea of numbers.

Doerksen is hardly alone: According to a Todaysparent.com poll, more than 60 percent of parents admitted they are sometimes afraid of their kids’ math homework. But experts shun the notion that there are people who just can’t do math. They say all kids — and parents — have a head for polynomials and Pythagorean theorum. It’s a matter of getting over your fear and getting excited about math. Read on for some ways to do just that.

Originally published in Today's Parent, January 2009