Everyone Can Succeed in Math

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs9aGVUZ3YA

In this video, a math majors talks about how there is no such thing as a “math person”. 

Math is a skill that needs to be practiced to be developed.  No one expects perfection or for us to know everything, so don’t kick yourself for making mistakes and taking time to learn a new concept.  We’re all at different points in our math journey and that’s okay.  It doesn’t make us stupid or slow if we’re not at the same spot in our skill level, it simply means we’re all different and at different places in our lives.  What matters is that we keep trying, keep practicing.  Math is simply a skill, therefore everyone can be good at it.  We can’t move forward if we’re always talking ourselves down.  Like she says in the video, “Math is hard, but you can do it.  It’s not magic – it’s a skill”.

I think the message in the video is a powerful one.  Too often our students put up barriers to their own learning by convincing themselves that they can’t do something because it has been too difficult in the past.  So they give up.  I believe that one of the greatest disservices we can do to our students to let them keep their pessimistic outlooks. 

I show this video to my students at the beginning of the semester and then lead into the idea of the inverse classroom, which is what they’ll be experiencing for the semester.  Students work at their own pace with me and other students as guides.  They quickly discover that there is no concept they can’t grasp.  Sometimes it takes longer than other students, but who cares?  I put emphasis on the journey and every little success, not the speed or how many hiccups we had along the way.  My goal is to erase all that negativity toward math and build self-esteem.  But it only works if we truly believe in our students – that every one of them has potential and can succeed in their own way.  And they can.