Conquering the Math Beast

The student scribbles furiously at his desk, the clock's deafening click echoing in the back of his mind. The numbers and letters—who decided to put letters in math anyway?—dance on his page, glaring at him for not understanding their secrets.

The end-of-class bell jars the room, and the student drops his pencil on his test in despair. Who was he kidding? Only some sort of genius really understands this stuff anyway.

A lot of students—elementary, high school, college, and even ex-students—hate math. We've all (at least in the US) heard them say it, and you might have said it yourself.

"I hate math."

                         "I don't get it."

                                                 "Math is the stupidest thing."

                                                                                       "I'm not sure I want to understand it."

We all know that the math can be a truly intimidating subject, but what if there were some magic weapon we could use to defeat it? Well, it may not be magic, but there are definitely some tricks you can use to conquer the Math Beast.

So how do we conquer the Math Beast?

Well, first we have to understand why the Math Beast is eating us. Every well-developed villain has a reason for what they do, right? And what villain is more well-developed than one that actually comes from the real world?

Okay, why does the Math Beast want to eat us, then?

The Math Beast, believe it or not, has good intentions. He has a lot of influence in our daily lives—cooking, shopping, and most occupations are some examples, even jobs that don't seem "math-y." For instance, are you a beautician? If so, when you dye hair, you have to deal with ratios to make sure your customer doesn't walk out with sad, green hair instead of their pretty blue. So, outside of school, the Math Beast is more like our domesticated Math Pet, happily waiting until you need him and take him out for a walk.

In school, though... he still has good intentions. But like any foreign creature, he doesn't speak the same language as we do. This is why the Math Beast eats us. Us students walk into class like unsuspecting bystanders, and then this crazy-looking monster with x's for teeth and y's for eyes jumps out at us!

Because we run away from math (not paying attention in class, not studying, not taking notes, etc.), we end up not understanding what's going on when we hit the test. During the test, the Math Beast chews up our brains, and then we go back to the rest of our lives, convinced we are "bad at math."

But I do pay attention and study and take notes!

A-hah! You pulled out your mighty sword—I mean, calculator and pencil—and did battle with the Beast! That's a good start. You still don't speak the Math Beast's language, though. Remember—the Math Beast in his preferred state is a domesticated friend helping you dye your customers' hair, but you can't tell your pet or friend what to do if it doesn't understand you. Who of you, when training your dog, expects him to follow your instructions without you first showing him what you want? Which of you multilingual people out there expects your English-only friend to give you advice if you told him your problem in a different language?

Given that, how can we expect math to make sense when we don't bother learning its language? I mean, if you were enrolled in a Chinese language class (and you didn't already know Chinese), would you expect to ace the test if all you did was listen to lecture, complete the homework that day (using your notes as a cheat sheet, of course), and then not look at the material again until five minutes before the test?