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Re: Math...
I agree with the opinion that many people seperate learning from fun. Somehow people got the notion that going to school and learning is not suppose to be enjoyable. It is suppose to be work.
I myself enjoyed doing calculations without a calculator and then afterwards checking if my calculations were right. I continue doing this until I reach a point where I need to use a calculator due to me being unable to do the calculation. If I recall correctly, in my area, the heavy use of calculators are when kids enter 6th grade. By the time they reach high school it is likely people forget how to even do 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication and long division with a pencil and paper. I don't know how it is in other parts of the United States.
Also, I think a lot of kids discourage themselves from learning math. Thinking it is too hard and give up on understanding. In the middle school here you may pass a test in 5th grade or be recommended by a math teacher to take the math course that is one year ahead of your grade level. I hear people refer to it as "smart math." This shows people think they have to have a natural gift with mathematics to be able to do well in math to me. This "smart math" after all is suppose to be learned by the kid the very next school year. After associating math with smart people will use their lack of natural ability as an excuse to why they're not doing well instead of studying hard to understand.
Maybe the problem is with this country is how we view education. We don't think of it as a blessing to be able to go to a place where we could learn with a person that could help us understand the material face to face. People think of it as a chore you have to do almost all the days of the week for less than half the day. Your test and quiz aren't rude benchmarks to see if you know the material, they are the obstacle that you must overcome to get to your goal whether that is passing the class, getting money for doing well, or achieving a goal of a good "grade." I recognize that quizzes and tests aren't the only way to tell if a person learned the material for that is why I refer to it as rude.
People view summer vacation as a liberation from having to learn instead of a break from following the forced schedule of school. If only more people were willing to learn some new things during summer break. This further implies to me the thinking of how learning is a chore I do not wish to do.
Just some mumblings of what I think.
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