I admit my feelings of envy towards my school friends who scored well in Math. Envied admiringly though! I have a phobia of Math and some have a mania for Math! I tried hard, practised hard still ended up scoring no decent marks. Memorizing the looks of the questions and their answers in pairs might have been invented by me! That is how I scored average marks in Math in Grade 10. Somehow I taught my mind it was not my cup of tea. However, still, I am desperate to befriend this monster, Math. Hopefully, a good Math tutor’s magic can work wonders on me. A tutor who can motivate and wipe out the fear for Math – who can change me to a person fond of crunching numbers and sifting data! In this blog, I would like to analyse a few reasons why Math still remains a monster, a phobia for many of us.

First of all, scientific research says that acquiring mathematical reasoning is the tool for understanding and befriending Math, a subject that explores logical and reasoning skills mainly.  Like any other subject, when it is taught taking situations from life and the world we live in, it gains a practical outlook and is understood deeply and enjoyed thoroughly. Teachers who realise this and deliver the subject in synchronization with, would create interest in students for the subject. So, what we need are teachers who can inspire and create interest. Probably, the reason why I don’t fondly remember any of my Math teachers is clear now for me!

However, there are a few who argue neither teachers nor interesting, application-based teaching methods can get students close to subjects. Their argument is interests and skills are pre-decided and are controlled by two different sides of the brain. That is why some still take the comfort of propagating the left-brain and right-brain thinkers theory that holds the right brain responsible for creativity and imagination skills and the left for logical and reasoning skills. Though this theory has been proven a myth already, some still live in its comforts. What we need to find about ourselves are our interests, skills and difficulties. Overcoming the difficulties seeking help and with efforts would definitely is a wise move. If you ask me about the brain theory, I would say it has to be true; my math friends hardly acquired any language skills. And my friends who were good imagination skills were good at English!

We are lifelong learners. We like to apply what we learned. Efficient and effective teachers can kill this Math Monster. Fears and anxiety about subjects can be erased slowly and replaced with interest and curiosity. Teachers are wonderful creatures.They are magicians who can change anyone into a math wizard. The wait in my case was and is for such a magician!